


You're Invited: Karasuno's week Retreat!

by abusemesoftly



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: AU, Aobajousai, Bisexual, Bruises, Cigarettes, Cupcakes, Cutting, Don't Judge Me, Don't worry, Drama, Dresses, F/F, F/M, FTM, Fighting, Fights, First Kiss, Flirting, Gender, Gender Dysphoria, Gender Fluid Character, Gender Issues, Gender Related, Genderfluid, Genderfluid Yamaguchi Tadashi, Group dynamics, Heat Stroke, Homeless Character, Homeless Shelter, Homeless Teen, Homelessness, I promise, I promise it gets better, Informational, Its a Thing, Jealous Kageyama Tobio, LGBT, Learning experience, Lesbian Characters, M/M, More - Freeform, More Ships to come, More characters to come, More to tsukki backstory, Nekoma, Nekoma High - Freeform, Now im wondering if that tag was because of me, Owls, Panic Attack, Past Abuse, Pokemon GO - Freeform, Presentations, Protective Dad, Protective Kageyama Tobio, Protective Parents, Self Harm, Sexualities, Sexuality, Shelters, Smoking, Smoking is hot dont do it kids, Stealing Food, That was a tag..., Trans Character, Trans Issues, Trans Noya, Transgender, Underage Smoking, after all of the bad stuff, all of them - Freeform, and Iwaizumi loves it, and is very much situational, anyway, aobajousai high, asshole yahaba, awkward first kiss, ball of sunshine Hinata, basically all of the members, bind safely kids, binders, bisexual facts, bisexual myths, breathing problems, brief mentions of abuse, bruise kink, couples are cute, cute couple, cute couple kenma/kuroo, cute flirting, cute lesbians being cute together, cute tadashi, dumbass hinata, emo mentions, flirtin, flirty Bokuto, foreshadowing is keeping me cool, ftm character, gay slur, genderfluid Tadashi, group excersizes, hamilton reference lol, hinata keeps fighting, hints at relationships, hints at things, i know because i have it, improper use of a binder, information, innocent lev, its very small, just fair warning, kenma and tadashi are friends, kenma and tadashi are really just three years old, lesbian facts, lesbian myths, lgbt statistics, loads of flirting, lol, long fic, loosing weight, lots of tags to be added as time goes on, making posters, mentions of a possible ed?, more couples - Freeform, more mentions of smoking, oh no, oh well, oikawa is annoying, owl dads, owl parents and their son tsukki, park adventures, poor babes, poor baby Yahaba, poor innocent lev, poor yachi, posters, protective kuroo, random headcanons, retreat, school retreat, situational eating disorder, so many cupcakes!, statistics, that will come later though, thats a thing, there is a fight, there whole team, this is like her nightmare and dream wrapped in one, trans character tba, transgender character, trying anyway, unhealthy character, very very very brief mention of drug addict, who knows - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2018-10-14 09:36:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 67,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10533786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abusemesoftly/pseuds/abusemesoftly
Summary: Karasuno has decided to host a week long retreat with other volleyball teams in their bracket. Together the team will host discussions, activities, and even a charity volleyball tournament to raise awareness and money for lgbt youth.





	1. The announcement, the assignments, and the excitement.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay guys, I really hope this goes well, because I have written two full pages already just of outlinging, its outrageous guys! This is going to be seriously chaptered, as per request, and I couldn’t be more excited, however I’m going to need your help, yes you, right there, reading this. I need you to comment, or bookmark, or kudos this because otherwise I’m going to like never finish it and I really need that constant reassurance!!!! Anyway, this is going to be super long and super detailed so I’m super nervous of course! I am also doing this without anyone to read it over, so if you are interested in being my like editor please message me and we can work something out and I’ll be happy to credit you! That all being said…let’s get started!

“That was great guys! Really great practice! I’d like everyone to gather round now please! I have some exciting news!” Coach Takeda said as he waved the entire team towards the benches were he, Coach Ukai, and the managers sat during practice. It was unusual for him to call for a meeting, but whenever he did it came with big news, but, thankfully, this time it seemed to be good. Dashi called again, telling the first years to hurry up as they gathered in a half circle around their managers.

Yachi, and Shimizu were talking softly to themselves, working on a chart of some kind, that held both the girls’ attention, unfazed by what the Coach was about to say, so they were clearly both in on the surprise.

“Are you getting married!?” Hinata yelled out as he sat, the concept of waiting was unknown to the boy.

“Dumbass, don’t you think if they were getting married they’d have a ring or something on their fingers?” Kageyama said in response, which just earned them both a glare from their captain.

“Who would I…?” Takeda started to ask and then stopped himself. Blushing a bit, he readjusted his glasses. He forgot sometimes that the kids liked to pair himself together with the real coach and the idea was to much for him to really think about at the moment. Or any moment for that matter.

“No, the board has approved of our retreat!” He said smiling big. The kids all paused for a moment remembering what exactly their sensei was talking about. Slowly as they all started to remember Suga spoke up speaking for most of them.

“You mean our sexuality and gender awareness retreat? That one? We asked months ago? Why now?” He said trying to think if they had asked to host any other’s sense then.

The Karasuno volleyball team was rather diverse, and they liked it that way. They knew that they had a few different sexualities involved, and for those that were aware, even a few different genders. However, a few months back the school had had a similar day where they talked about the seriousness of the lack of support for LGBT students and youth in their area and they wanted to do something about it, seeing as they all had some sort of involvement in it, and their love of volleyball and friendship with the other teams in their bracket made the conclusion not a hard one to jump to.

They had the idea to host a retreat of sorts where they would talk about the different letters, and all sorts of things, all while having fun and playing volleyball and maybe even the idea of a tournament for charity. While they all thought, it was a great idea, their coaches, and, if cornered, some of the third years were worried it wouldn’t be approved because of the responsibilities that a retreat would require.

“Yes! Seven days, in a few months, and we have formally invited, the other teams in our bracket that we usually play.” He said excited, waiting for the students to all join in. Slowly one by one they all smiled and started actually getting into the idea.

“This is awesome! We’re going to host our very first retreat!” Nishinoya cheered as Tanaka hollered and got their team mates riled up. Ukai just laughed watching as his team quickly became a buzz of questions, and comments, and everyone talking about what was going to happen, and how it was going to happen.

“Calm down, everyone be quiet and listen up!” Ukai yelled regrouping the rambunctious kids, “This is a big responsibility, and even more of a sign of trust. The school board has given us this opportunity to make a difference and do some good and we cannot let them down. Which means that you will all have jobs to do throughout the entire week, and the week leading up, and cleanup afterwards!” He said wondering if his words would start to bring down the kids, who all just seemed to beam back up at him nodding along.

“Of course, coach! We will do whatever we need to!” Hinata said speaking for everyone, getting rounds of agreement following his statement.

“I’m glad you said that Hinata.” Shimizu said looking up from her notebook finally, Yachi also looking up to the group.

The orange haired boy felt his face burn as he got attention from the older manager.

“We have put together a list of things we will need, what we will need to do in preparation for the retreat, and who will need to put together presentations for what topics.” She said calmly. She didn’t usually talk this much she knew, but as a manager now was her time to take charge. She waited out the bursts of ‘anything! Of course! Whatever we need! Promise!’ to then further explain.

“We have each been assigned either a topic to talk about and present, or an activity to lead. At the end of the week we will be hosting a small tournament for charity, so along with preparations for the retreat itself we will need to get the word out for the public so they are aware of the competition.” She said and nodded to Yachi.

“We, uh, we have the topics if you will come by and get them before you leave, so we can give them out personally, for any sensitivity that there might be…uhm, but don’t be embarrassed or upset, because the retreat is going to be good for us! It will bring us so much closer and we will learn lots about all of us! Thank you!” She said nervous at first but finishing off strong she thought. She was still warming up to being a manager, but she was quickly learning to love it.

“Yes!” The team yelled in unison, which made the younger manager jump and blush from the attention.

“We’ll talk more about it as we go, for now, just finish off practice like usual, clean the gym, and then get your personal projects for the week from your managers.” Takeda said bowing slightly to Dashi who then gathered his team’s attention and assigned the daily clean up chores to everyone and thanked the coaches for the opportunity from the team.

“What do you think they’ll have us do Tsukki?” Yamaguchi asked looking up to his friend as they folded the net together.

“I don’t know…” He said thinking about it, he honestly had no idea and while he didn’t hate the idea, he was sure that this was going to be a disaster and he didn’t really want a big part of it, but he knew Tadashi was so he asked the same question to his friend who gave a similar answer but continued to talk about his excitement for the week anyway.

“Kageyama hurry up! I want to get our assignments so we can go toss more!!!” Hinata could be heard from across the gym as they swept. He was not appreciating how slow the other was being, and he made it known.

Suga smiled as he walked over to the managers who were still working in their notebook, probably working harder than they had on anything in a while. They were all about to be, that was for sure.

“Mind if I grab my assignment now?” He asked as he smiled nodding to the girls.

“You are with Daichi and we figured who better to talk about std’s and other sex ed than mom and dad.” Shimizu said with a smirk as she handed him his paper. It wasn’t exactly a secret, the relationship between the Captain and his second, especially to those who were in the same grade, so while Yachi was blushing bright red, Suga just laughed and rolled his eyes.

“No one actually calls us mom and dad.” He said and just went to talk to Daichi about their given assignment. He also laughed and just sighed as he then moved and started double checking the results so the team could go get changed.

“Can we get our assignment’s please!” Tanaka and Noya asked in unison.

“Uh, Takeda wants to give you yours Nishinoya, but we have yours here Tanaka.” The older girl said motioning towards their coaches talking as they went through a list of papers to give Tanaka his. With a shrug toward his friend Noya walked over to their coaches and bowed to his elders.

“Shimizu said you wanted to speak to me sir?” He asked as Takeda excused himself and walked his student farther away so they were one on one. Noya had an idea of what this was going to be about but he was still bracing himself anyway.

“Part of the week will be a discussion about Transgendered people, and I have given the assignment to you.”

“Okay, cool. Is that all?” He asked taking the sheet and raising his eyebrows.

“Yes, I just wanted to make sure that you were okay with it.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” He asked his teacher, tilting his head a bit as he dared him to push farther.

“Just making sure! Go change!” He said and smiled down at his student, that had gone easier than expected.

“What did you get?” He asked Tanaka when they reunited on the walk to the club room.

“Nothing important, you?” He asked folding his paper as he spoke, putting it in his pocket.

“Same.” Neither boy said anything else about the topic, while simultaneously wondering what the other was hiding about it, before chasing down some other teammates and going back to being their usual loud selves.

“Yachi?” A soft voice came, and instead of jumping the younger girl turned and smiled big.

“Senpai, are you here for your assignment?” She asked smiling at Ennoshita. The second year nodded and she handed him a piece of paper.

“I know you don’t talk a lot about it, but I didn’t know who else we could assign to Bisexuality.” She said blushing a bit as she looked down. He rubbed the back of his neck.

“If you don’t want to though I’m sure we can find someone else or something!” She said quickly covering herself, worried that he would be upset. Instead he just smiled at her.

“No, it’s okay, I don’t mind, I’m not worried about it.” He said quietly, as if the conversation really were just between the two of them. He was much different than his other second years.

“Hey! What do I get to do?” Kinoshita asked as came over, wrapping an arm around his friend.

Shimizu smiled and looked over at her younger manager starting to get overwhelmed.

“Actually, you and Narita are going to be together for a sort of question panel, that we will have at the end of every day, for anyone that might have questions they don’t really feel comfortable asking personally, we’ll talk more about it, but you two get to host it.” She said as she took the paper from Yachi, and called the other boy over to explain more in detail about it. They were content as ever, and excited even.

After the rest of the team was changed they started closing down the gym and the boys talked as the managers called the rest of the kids over one or two at a time to pass out the rest.

“You two are going to host one of the activities that’s going to be a whole day actually. We figured with all of your energy that it would be no problem.” Shimizu said to the infamous duo.

“That sounds so exciting!!” Hinata said cheering and pulling on Kageyama’s arm.

“Calm down and let her explain it!” Kageyama responded as he turned his attention back to his senpai.

After explaining that they would be running a photo shoot of sorts, the boys were very excited and left already talking about idea’s and what they might do for pictures and themes.

“Tsukishima, could you come here next please?” Takeda asked calling the boy over, who was surprised that he was not being paired with his, with Yamaguchi.

“It is important that we talk about safety in relationships, both family and other kinds of relationships, which covers the topic of abuse. I felt like it would be a good fit for you, and you would be able to shed some light, and maybe talk about what’s happened.” The teacher said looking to the boy who was about the same height. It was always weird when he had tall students. It made the balance of authority seem in question.

“I’m not sure if I’d be the best for that sir.” He said pushing up his glasses and fidgeting with his headphones.

“Really? Because I thought you would be perfect.” He said smiling at the boy, hoping to offer some reassurance. He didn’t want to pressure him, but he wanted someone with a connection to give the presentation for sure.

“Okay,” was all he said as he took the paper, immediately shoving it in his backpack. He noticed his friend being given his own paper. He looked about as bright as a strawberry. Obviously, he was uncomfortable taking whatever assignment had been given to him and he wondered what it was. There was lots of things that made Tadashi uncomfortable, but only a few that he thought of that the others would know about. He was sure they weren’t asking him to talk about anything kinky, because it was still a school run function. The idea of him having to do a presentation over that however was interesting enough to distract himself from his own paper. He waited patiently for Shimizu to convince his friend to take the paper.

After everyone had their own papers they had one last group meeting for a follow up before everyone headed home for the weekend.

“Along with all that we will all be dividing the cleaning responsibilities and Yachi, and I both have our own assignments as well and will be having our own presentations, and activities respectfully.” Shimizu said smiling at the shorter girl.

“Any questions, comments, or concerns, can be sorted through either me, Takeda or Daichi.” She said and the other two men nodded as Coach said a few last words about the practice itself as he told everyone to go get some rest.

Excitement buzzed through the group as they all parted ways, smaller becoming smaller groups, into couples, into singles the farther down their ways they got. Karasuno was in for a wild ride.


	2. Tadashi Yamaguchi shows off his dresses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tadashi is slightly freaking out about his assignment. He explains why.

 

Tadashi had loved the idea of the week retreat, he however, was not in love with the idea of him having to talk about genderfluid people. He didn’t think that talking to his best female friend about stuff like that would get him in this position. It took him a long time to let Yachi in on his secret, because that’s what it was supposed to be! A secret. He hadn’t even told Tsukki about it, but there were a few different things he hadn’t told Tsukki.

Tadashi and Yachi had become fast friends and it only helped that they were basically the same size. He had first stolen a few things from her closet when she had been asleep at their sleepovers. She had found him out after waking up one night, paranoid, with a bat in hand, that there had been an intruder in her closet. He had thrown the dress off, and grabbed his shoes and phone and ran out of her house before she could say anything. He went straight home and luckly was able to avoid any questions from his parents about why he didn’t have a shirt on. He had refused to talk to Yachi the rest of the weekend and on Monday worked as hard as he could to avoid her then, only to be cornered by her on his way to practice.

He had planned for a lot of different reactions, none of which were what he was expecting when she pulled the dress out and handed it to him.

‘It looks great on you, and I haven’t worn it in months, I want you to have it.’ Was all she had said about it, and later he had explained to her the term he had found online. Genderfluid. He had been skeptical at first, but he found that he genuinely enjoyed being feminine and thinking of himself as a girl at times. She was the first and only person that knew about it and he had planned on keeping it that way.

That was until she told him that they had assigned him to “genderfluid” for the retreat. He had no idea what he was supposed to talk about or what exactly he planned to do about the questions that were sure to come about his credibility with the topic. He hadn’t told Tsukki, and for that reason he didn’t ask what his friend had gotten either. Neither of them wanted to talk about it, it had seemed. He was perfectly fine with that, but he figured that he would have to tell his friend, because while there was a few different thing’s Tsukki and he didn’t share, he didn’t want his best friend to find out at the same time everyone else did.

That’s how they ended up here. He had taken the night to worry and fret and come up with a plan. He was going to show Tsukki.

They usually spend the weekends together anyway, so the request for him to come over didn’t come as a surprise.

“Tsukki!” He said happily when he saw the much taller boy in his doorway.

“Yes, it’s me.” He said blandly. They both knew he enjoyed being here, but it was just his way to not acknowledge it.

“I uhm, have something I want to show you.” Tadashi said chewing his lip. He led the two of them to his bedroom, thankful now more than ever that his parents worked on the weekends. Kei didn’t say anything, but his expression was enough of a question.

“It’s nothing bad I just…I wanted to tell you. No one else really knows.” He said nervously, obviously fighting the urge to tell him to forget the whole thing, and knowing his best friend, he would respect that and let it drop. He wanted to do this. He did. He just hadn’t expected to have to do it so soon.

“I uhm…well uh, I, I never really had to say it.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“Just say it.” He said pushing his glasses up on his face to be able to look at his friend straight on, sitting on the bed gave him an advantage of being shorter than usual.

“I’m genderfluid.” He said after taking a deep breath. Yamaguchi had said it, finally. He looked up nervously and instead of seeing disgust or hatred he saw confusion.

“I’m not familiar with that…” Tsukki said scratching his head. He didn’t like not knowing about things.

“Is it like being transgender?” He asked almost worried. He felt like he would have known if his…if Tadashi was transgender. Wouldn’t he?

“Sort of, in a way I guess. But not all the time. Like I still like being a guy, but I sometimes feel like a girl too.” He said shrugging. It wasn’t a big deal for him, and he hoped that it wouldn’t be a big deal with anyone else either.

“I don’t…understand, are you not happy in your body?” He asked moving towards the end of the bed to reach out and hold Tadashi’s hand. They would both be thinking much too into that movement later.

“Just sometimes. I, here,” He said pulling out a box from under his bed, Tsukki was surprised that he hadn’t noticed it before with as much time as the two of them spent on his floor.

He opened the box and pulled out the dress Yachi had given him. He had a few other things, some skirts, including a school skirt, and a few other dresses that he had collected over time. He pulled his shirt off, blushing as he went along, but if Tsukki noticed, which he did, then he was kind enough not to point it out. After he slid the dress over his head he slipped his arms into their spot under the straps and then shimmied out of his pants letting them fall to the floor as he stepped out of them.

“It’s kind of like, this. How easy it was for me to switch from me, to girly me.” He said and played with the sides of the dress. He twirled a bit. It was his favorite part of this particular dress, was how flowy it was.

It was Tsukki’s turn to blush bright red at the sight of his friend in a dress. He had felt pretty confident in the fact that he could hide his feelings toward his friend, and had been for a few years now, but there was something different recently that they both noticed. They didn’t comment when they stood to close together, didn’t mention when their hands would brush against one another more than usual when they walked together. And no one said one word about it when they started just sleeping in the same bed, because it was too much of a hassle to get the futon out. This though, this was different. This was something that Tadashi had specifically brought up and shown him and here he was, unable to speak, staring at his friend, with his cheeks as pink as the dress.

“I…I think I get it, but I’m sorry if I mess up.” He said and readjusted his glasses even though they hadn’t actually moved.

“It’s okay, I don’t care so much about the whole pronoun thing so much…it’s still pretty new to me, but there is a whole lot about it online if you want to look it up later.” He said going over to his desk to open his laptop and pull up some of the sites he had gone to. He didn’t really pay attention to the fact that he was partially bent over his desk and Kei had frozen.

“Uhm, where did you get the dress?” He asked coughing to cover up any stutter he might have had. He moved over standing behind the boy, closer than was probably necessary and he ran a hand down his side to feel the fabric. He hadn’t even realized he had moved until Tadashi was turned, face to face, looking up at him with his mouth open in surprise.

“I got it from Yachi. You two are the only ones who know…” He said blushing as he looked down at Tsukki’s hand which was still on his side, thumb moving most likely subconsciously to feel the fabric.

“Cool.” Was all he said and he licked his lips as he let them stay like this for a moment. Tadashi couldn’t tell how long they stayed like that, close and softly touching, but he liked it. They both did. But neither one was going to admit that just now. Tadashi was the first to move away, to pull his pants back on before he lifted the dress up over his head and put the box where it came from. He pulled his shirt back on and sighed moving to sit on his bed.

“It’s my assignment for the retreat week, that’s why I was sort of freaking out last night…I don’t know how I feel about everyone knowing.” He said looking back down.

“I know what you mean.” Kei spoke up, quieter than he had talked in a long time. He wasn’t one to be nervous or upset. But this stupid week long fiasco was going to happen, and he was going to have to face this.

“What did you get?” He asked finally looking up to his friend who just sat down and picked up a controller for the gaming system that was set up in his room.

“Shut up.”

“Sorry Tsukki.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, guys so this was one of the filler chapters to start more of the backstory, and some of the plot with the relationship. I love Tadashi and Tsukki together so much oh my god! Anyway! I’m going to go start working on the next chapter I love you guys so much!!!! Again, please leave kudos or comments if you liked it, it reminds me that people actually want to read this story ya know? Also you can follow me on tumblr!!! @iwantyourbloodonmylips Thanks guys!!!


	3. Nekoma High and Low

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nekoma's volleyball team gets the announcement that they will be attending Karasuno's week retreat and the team is confused but excited

 

“Nice receive!” “Nice!” “Don’t mind, don’t mind!”

The sound of a whistle cut through the gym, through the practice match that was going between the Nekoma high team. There were a few balls hitting the ground, the others were caught, but after all the heads turned to their coaches.

“Start clean up early!” Coach Naoi yelled and the team responded with a yes, before going about their regular list of cleaning duties.

“Why are we getting off early do you think? Is there supposed to be bad weather? I don’t think there is, otherwise my mom would have told me to bring an umbrella, do you have an umbrella senpai? We can share mine if you need.” Lev rambled on as he walked with this older, but much shorter boy to get the brooms. Yaku wasn’t entirely sure how he had been stuck with this annoying and loud first year, but he had a suspicion that it had something to do with the fact that Kozume had once said ‘they would be cute together,’ and sense then Kuroo had been pairing them for everything. It wasn’t as if he hated the kid, in fact he was quite fond of him, but he was always talking, and never seem to run out of steam, which wouldn’t have been so bad if he was half good at their sport.

“I don’t think it’s for bad weather Haiba, I heard something about a retreat.” He said shrugging as they got the brooms, bringing down a few other items in the storage closet as well.

“I can get it!” Lev said eager as always to help. The only down side to him helping was that he was rather clumsy and that didn’t work to well in the small closet. Tripping over the broom in his own hand somehow, he fell, nearly missing the metal cart that held their basketballs.

“Haiba!” The third year yelled going to check on his friend and ended up half on top of him because of the close quarters.

“Why don’t they make the closet bigger?” He asked groaning as he got up on one of his elbows, his hand going to rub the back of his head.

“Oh my god they’re totally doing it!” Fukunaga shrieked from the doorway.

“Captain! You were right!” He said still pointing at the couple on the floor. Suddenly the entire team was in the doorway trying to see into the small, now even darker room, seeing as everyone was blocking the light.

“My kohai and my senpai! I am so happy!” Yamamoto yelled jumping around excited for the supposed couple.

“I was right.” Was all Kozume said as he walked away to finish collecting the volleyballs. Kuroo followed after his boyfriend instead of staying with the small crowd to ask him if he thought they were cuter than the two of them. The only insecurities he had, but would still not admit to were when it came to his precious kitten of a boyfriend. Who, ironically, didn’t mind the nickname. He found he was quite cat like and they enjoyed each other’s company, him and felines, so to be called as one was a high honor in his book.

“We’re not doing it!” Yaku yelled throwing his hands up.

“We’re not?” Lev asked which just earned him a glare from his senpai and laughs from the rest of the kids who were still in the doorway.

“No, of course not! I would know if we were!” He said and then got up walking out huffing.

“If we’re not sweeping then why do you still have the broom?” He sat up finally and gave his fellow first year a confused look. Inuoka just laughed at him and shook his head as he helped his friend up.

“No idiot, they meant sex.” He just said laughing as he walked off leaving Lev to turn as bright red as their uniforms.

After the chores were done, and the sweeping was finally finished, Kuroo called the team around and they sat watching their coaches for the news that caused them to be given time off practice. Whatever it was, apparently, it was something they would be talking about.

“Some of you have heard, others haven’t but we have been invited to a weeklong retreat by Karasuno.” Nekomata paused to let the whispering and excitement quiet down a bit.

“You will all need to get these slips signed, for permission to be gone for the week, just like our away games, and training camps.” He said and then turned to the younger coach to continue. Sitting back down he listened as Naoi explained the details of the retreat.

“Part of the permission slip will be for the content that we will be going over at the retreat. It is not a very volley heavy week, though we will be participating in a charity tournament at the end of the week, and of course, the gym will be open for you to practice with each other, and I expect you to.” He said looking at slightly confused faces. Suddenly a hand was in the air and he nodded to the first year.

“What charity sir? What is the week going to be about if not volleyball?” Shibayama asked tilting his head in confusion. The two schools were friends sure, the teams got along great, and he could already hear his teammates excited to get to spend more time with the others, but outside volleyball there wasn’t much that connected to the two schools.

“That’s why you’ll need parent permission for this one especially. Karasuno as decided to hold a gender and sexuality retreat. They felt that it is a topic that is overlooked and has decided to change that. There will be discussions, lessons of sorts, and activities and different things for different LGBT youth charities.

“The proceeds from the charity tournament at the end of the week will be going to the antibullying LGBT youth organization.” He finished with a nod, looking to the boy, immediately another hand shot up.

“There’s an organization for that? Is it actually that big of an issue?” Kai asked shaking his head not understand why exactly they were attending this retreat.

“68 percent of LGBT youth have experienced bullying in school as young as elementary and 32 percent have considered suicide.” Kenma said looking over to his senior, not even worried about speaking up before coach was able to.

“It must be nice to not have to worry about it.” Lev whispered, only a few heard, including Yaku and their captain.

“This is exactly why we have agreed to go. We,” He paused to point to his sensei and himself, “as much as you all need to know about these things and be more aware, because we will not tolerate bullying, and we want you to support one another and stand up for anyone you come across if they are unable to do it themselves.” Naoi said addressing everyone once again.

“Nekomata and I will be having our own retreat with the other coaches about how to handle any questions, situations or problems that you might have so we can be best prepared for it. And, before you ask, Aobajosai, Date Tech, and Fukurodani have all been invited, and as far as we know, plan to attend as well.”

Rounds of ‘wow’ and ‘oh my gosh’ and other exclamations were made and the coach smiled as he watches the kids get excited. Honestly, he was looking forward to it. He thought it was a great idea and he was grateful that they were not hosting again.

“So, please have your parents or guardians sign this, and return it on Monday so we can formally agree.” He said and pulled out a stack of papers and handed them out.

“That being said, practice was good today! And I expect all of you to use this retreat to learn, grow, become closer, and learn as much as you can from the other players and get better!” He said and then went on to compliment, or call out specific players for things during practice that he had noticed.

“Alright guys, be safe this weekend and we will see you on Monday.” He said clapping his hands and nodding to the team.

“Thank you, Coach!” Kuroo leaded the team in saying before they went to the club room to change and get their bags.

The talk had taken up the last bit of practice that they would have been playing, so they were still about twenty minutes ahead of schedule.

“Meat buns anyone? On me.” Kai said to everyone, but his eyes following his captain and his boyfriend, a sort of sorry for earlier.

“What a gentleman!” Yamamoto yelled and hugged his vice-captain.

“Who could turn down free meat buns!” Lev said getting the other first years to agree, Yaku couldn’t help but wonder what earlier had been about.

“Are you coming senpai?” He suddenly was face to face with the taller boy.

“Well duh, I never turn down free food from Kai.” He said laughing at his friend and pushing Lev back.

“Oh, my god you stink!” He said which caused the entire changing room to erupt in laughter, ending the night on a lighter note. Everyone was thinking about something, you could tell in how quiet everyone was being naturally. That didn’t stop them from having a good time together, or enjoying each other’s company.

“Well we should get going!” Kuroo said, moving Kenma off of his lap to stand up and stretch. Ignoring the snickers he got from his teammates, he just made sure that everyone had a way to get home and would be okay for him to leave, with that they said their goodbyes and they started walking back to Kuroo’s place.

After that everyone seemed to start saying their own goodbyes, Lev and Inuoka leaving to head the same direction, opting to walk together, then Yamamoto hopped on his bike and raced off, forgetting the time he promised he’d be home. The rest of the team talked a bit more about different shows, school, and random things before they all went their separate ways. All in the cool air, moon shining above them, they were all feeling different things, confusion, excitement, nerves, nothingness, it didn’t matter. They all knew that this retreat was going to change their team, and most likely the other teams as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys!!! So, this is the new chapter, I wanted to do something with Nekoma, and now there is some more info about the retreat for you guys, and yes, there will be chapters dedicated to the other teams as well, that should be excited. I hope you caught the hints at different things I’m hoping to bring up. It’s so hard to keep all of the little details of each specific character you want in your head oh my god you guys don’t even know, unless you do, and in that case, you understand my struggle! Anyway, comment, kudos, bookmark, it keeps me motivated for sure, and I need all the help I can now a days! Also follow me on tumblr if you want @iwantyourbloodonmylips thanks guys! Be safe and have a good night!!!   
> Oh also--- here is the link to the statistics I used guys! (that’s right I used real legit statistics!) http://www.hrc.org/blog/majority-of-lgbt-students-in-japan-bullied-in-school


	4. Let's Have Lunch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karasuno seniors decide to have lunch and talk about the retreat and other fun things!!!

 

The bell rang for lunch and Asahi sighed. He was stressing out about the test he had after lunch. He had been studying all night, well as much as he could with a very bored, Noya in his lap half the night. But no one else needed to know that. He was sure that there were people knew, in fact, his fellow seniors all knew, but he had noticed some looks from his other kohai, and that only added to his stress.

“Azumane you need to relax!” Suga said smiling as he went over and stood next to his desk.

“Do you want to come to lunch with Daichi and I? Kiyoko and Michimiya-san are going to join us as well!” He said excitedly. It was nice to have a lunch with just the seniors. Not that they didn’t all enjoy the company of their fellow teammates, but sometimes, it was nice to just be them, the original group. Having spent so long together they had a special bond that the other kids would understand when they got older as well.

“Of course, let me put my books up.” He said and collected his things as they walked out to be joined by their team captain. With a quick hello, they all walked together to Asahi’s locker and he got his lunch as they walked to where they usually sat, below a window on the third floor of their schools building. Their manager was already there laughing at something Michimiya had said. Being a captain of her own team, her and Daichi had gotten very close, trading techniques and tips they had learned, talking about the annoying first years that they loved no matter what, and loads of other things.

“Hi!” She said cheerfully, Shimizu just nodded with a soft smile on her face as the three men sat down and started eating.

“Asahi-san your hair is so long now I love it!” The short hair girl said and reached over playing with the soft bun he had made.

“It keeps getting in my eyes but Shimizu-san said if I kept it up too much it would fall out!” He complained sadly, as if he hadn’t plenty already.

“Would you rather she not have said anything?” Daichi asked laughing as he took a bite of apple, before offering some to Suga, who took it happily, used to picking off of his boyfriend and best friend’s plates instead of packing a lunch for himself.

“No, but ugh!” He said throwing his head into his hands. There was so much going out, and he seemed to be carrying his own stress on top of stress that Noya seemed to not be acknowledging.

“You don’t have to be so stressed out Asahi.” Kiyoko said offering up, putting her hand on his knee. She then moved back to take a drink of her juice.

“You’ll do fine on the test, you studied all night, right?” Suga asked raising his eyebrows. Asahi nodded but didn’t move his head, only excepting the piece of chicken that was placed in front of his mouth by Michimiya.

“You’re worried about the retreat?” She offered up and he shrugged.

All of them were excited sure, but the couple was not looking forward to having to discuss std’s with a room full of high school ages boys. It was not their idea of a good time, and honestly, the research they would have to do for this, seemed dirty somehow. Daichi figured that’s why it was important to talk about it, and take one for the teams, so that they would know the information in case they were too scared to look it up themselves. Asahi didn’t mind talking about pansexuality, he wasn’t ashamed of it or anything, but he knew that he would have to defend it against the people who said it was just the same as bisexuality, and he hated conflict. So much…

“Don’t be worried about it, Yui and I will both be there, along with the team to support you.” Kiyoko spoke up and all of the heads turned towards her. She was surprised at the reaction she got and furrowed her brows.

“What?”

“Why is Yui going to be there?” Suga asked and then gave an apologetic look to his friend, hoping she would know that he meant no disrespect.

“Uhm, that’s something we kind of wanted to talk to you guys about…” The other girl said nervously playing with the hem of her skirt.

“She will be helping me out with my own presentation.” Kiyoko said blank faced as usual, any stranger on the street would think she couldn’t care less, but those who knew her saw that this was different, she was working to keep her face even. The other boys didn’t like that. Daichi smiled at the two of them, happy for what he knew was coming.

“Huh?” Asahi’s smart response came. Seriously, how he was supposed to pass this test next hour?

“I’ve been assigned to talk about being lesbian.” She said looking down, vigorously ignoring the color on her cheeks.

“So, I figured I would talk about it with my girlfriend.” She said looking back up, with much more confidence then seconds before. Yui just smiled and blushed as well as their friends all turned towards her now.

“Surprise!” She said laughing at the situation as she covered her face, trying her best to ignore the burning feeling on her cheeks.

“Congratulations guys! I had no idea, how long have you guys been together?” Suga said smiling big as he took some bites from Asahi’s plate, who had now returned to normal seeing as he wasn’t the center of attention anymore.

“About two months now. We decided that we were going to tell the other guys at the retreat, and Yachi already knows of course, but I wanted to tell you both first.” Kiyoko said and Asahi paused then, taking his chopsticks back from Suga with as stern of a look as he could manage.

“Wait, both of us? Me and Suga? Daichi you knew?” It was the captain’s turn to rub the back of his neck.

“Oh, well yeah, but I mean, it wasn’t my business to tell…but captains talk, what can I say?” He said and pretended to be hurt when Suga smacked his arm.

“Boyfriend’s don’t count!” He said and sighed as he turned towards the girls again, congratulating them once more, and they all finished eating, everyone offering up bites to Suga like giving sacrifices to a god. One that seemed to never remember to take care of itself. Okay, so more like a toddler. Cute, considerate, but utterly damned when it came to making sure he was taking care of himself.

“How is Noya-san doing?” Michimiya asked Asahi who smiled and waved it off, saying his was fine, as usual. Loud, always jumping around, probably wreaking havoc with Tanaka or bothering some of the first years. He left out the part about his somewhat secret boyfriend being moodier lately, or quicker to jump down people’s throats, he knew what it was, but there wasn’t much he could do about it, so he just did his best, to wrap his arms around Noya when he wanted, and offer him food when he didn’t want to be touched. He knew the stress about the retreat was getting to him, but he was putting it on a shelf to bother everyone else about their own assignments. He knew this first hand because Noya had basically found all of the information he needed about his own presentation, even designed a board he could create to help explain it.

“That reminds me, Kiyoko do we need to have like presentation boards? Like for science?” He asked as they all stood to get ready to go back to class.

“You don’t have to for sure, but it might be nice, for you all’s specifically, statistics and information on a board where we could set it up, we could have it on display for the tournament. I change my mind, we should!” She said genuinely getting excited about it. Yui just started clapping.

“Yay! I love making boards!” She cheered as they walked back to their lockers.

“I’ll tell everyone at practice today.” Daichi said as the bell rang, ending lunch period.

Kiyoko nodded to him in appreciation as she said goodbye to everyone and headed to her next class. Daichi joined Asahi for their next class while Suga walked Michimiya to her class.

“It’ll be okay Asahi, he’ll be fine.” Their captain said, referring to Noya. Asahi smiled and agreed at that. He always was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so what do you guys think? Oh my god I just had a burst of energy and actually finished two chapters oh my goshhhh!! Ahhhh, okay, so it’s totally a head cannon of mine that Kiyoko and Michimiya are dating because I think it’s adorable, and I can’t wait for their presentation, also I’m like hardcore getting into the idea of this retreat and I wish I had had it at my school, I so would have gone!!! Tell me if you caught anything in this chapter, I promise there is some foreshadowing hints in here as well like all the others! Anyway, my thumbs hurt and I should probably sleep, or at least try to finish another chapter for one of my other fics if I still have motivation! Anyway, let me know what you guys think!!! Also follow me on tumblr for questions, comments, prompts, and all your Haikyuu goodness, along with loads of other random things you didn’t ask for! @iwantyourbloodonmylips thanks guys!!!!! Be safe!!!


	5. Play date!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kenma and Tadashi want to go Pokemon hunting, and Tsukki enjoys talking to his "big brother," even if Kenma does sort of rock the boat...for the better?

 

“Kenma don’t go do far!” Kuroo yelled and shook his head as he and Tsukishima sat down on a bench. The four of them, Tadashi included decided to hang out today at the park. Tadashi and Kenma had their games in their hand, walking around playing Pokémon, they were having a great time in the quiet park that not many people were at right now considering it was so hot out today, even as early in the day as it was.

“Did they put sunscreen on?” Kuroo asked suddenly worried, both of them, Kenma especially was so pale, they would get burned.

“Tetsuro, they’re not three, promise.” Tsukki said setting the water bottle that he had taken from Yamaguchi before he ran off to play his game, otherwise he was sure to lose it.

“The team is really excited for the retreat.” The captain said stretching putting his sunglasses back on from where they had sat on his head. It had been about a week sense they had been told, and everyone was talking about it, wondering what it was going to be like, excited for the charity tournament, and looking forward to seeing their friends.

“Yeah, so is our team…I don’t know though…I’m not super excited to do these assignments.” Kei said shrugging. The two boys had gotten pretty close sense the first match, and every retreat or training camp sense then have just helped them get closer. He felt like Kuroo was sort of like an older brother to him, which he didn’t want to acknowledge because he already had an older brother…but Kuroo never lied to him, he told him the truth, he called him out, and he let Kei call him out when it was necessary. Some people had daddy issues, he figured big brother issues were just as logical.

“What presentation are you doing?” He asked turning to look at his friend. He knew what happened with Tsukishima’s older brother and he did his best to rebuild the trust that had been broken, in hopes to help them reconnect if he could, like a good big brother would. He was an only child, so he enjoyed the younger kid’s company. And Kenma liked playing with Tadashi.

“I uh…I have to do a lesson on abuse.” Tsukki said not looking at Kuroo, but opting to look for the two shorter boys that were busy walking around the park, using their phones as some magic binoculars that could see the creatures.

“Oh.” Was the response he got.

“Yeah.”

“Well, how is that going to work? You just talk about what happened or...?” Kuroo asked nervously, he knew that Tuskki didn’t like talking about it, so he didn’t know what was going to happen if he had to talk about it in front of an entire group of people.

“No, I’m going to just talk about statistics and stuff, I don’t plan on bringing anything up…” He said rubbing the back of his neck and sighed taking a drink of his own water bottle, it was hot, perhaps they should have insisted on sunscreen.

“Okay, have you told Yamaguchi yet?” He asked looking over at the two boys.

“No, I don’t want to…I mean, I don’t want him to…I don’t know…I don’t want anyone knowing, ya know?” He asked moving to bend over and put his head in his hands between his legs.

“Then don’t tell them, it will be okay, just, don’t let things bottle up again okay?” He said and then he suggested that they play a little one on one with the ball he had brought. Kei was thankful for the distraction, and they were sweating for more than one reason after a while. It was about an hour after they were playing that the two smaller boys came back and decided to join in, changing it up a little, Tsukishima played with Kenma, while Tadashi awkwardly played with Kuroo, afraid of how much taller he was.

He was used to Tsukki, but Kuroo was taller, and much more vocal and just, a lot more than his best friend. Tadashi didn’t mind it, but it took some getting used to, and he wondered how Kenma did it because he was even shorter than Hinata. Though all three of them got along, it was fun to hang out just with each other. After another hour and a half of playing the small group of friends had gone through all of their water, lost their unneeded layers, and shirts in someone’s case, and had gathered a small crowed watching.

After Kenma scored the last point everyone clapped and then went about at their park adventures for the day. Kuroo used his shirt to wipe his face and then Kenma did the same. They all decided to go somewhere with AC, deciding to head to a local ice cream store down the street.

“Why do I have to put my shirt back on?” Kuroo asked sighing as they approached the door. Kenma gave him a look, and it seemed to be all the answer he needed and Tsukki and Tadashi both laughed as he pulled his shirt back on and then ran ahead to get in the building as soon as possible.

“So, are you guys dating yet?” Kenma asked not even looking up from his phone.

“What?!” The other couple asked at the same time. Something so bold from the small boy was not something that Tsukki was used to, and while Tadashi was more used to it, it was still a shock.

“Let’s go get ice cream.” Tadashi said and grabbed Kenma’s arm as he pulled him along.

“So, you haven’t told him yet?” He asked as he was being pulled along, leaving Kei alone to enter the shop. The four of them ate their ice cream in somewhat comfortable silence.

Tsukki was stuck in thought, there was just so much to think about, and now he had to worry about something that his best friend hadn’t told him, but told Kenma?

Tadashi was freaking out in his own head, but he was doing his best to not show it, and enjoy the time with their friends. Kuroo and Kenma said their goodbyes once the ice cream was finished, and they left to get back to their house as Yamaguchi lead the two of them back to his house. He talked, nervously, about all the characters they found, and improved. Kei listened halfheartedly like he usually did. Once they were at Tadashi’s house they went to his room to set up the gaming system they usually played.

“Hey Tadashi?” Tsukki asked, requesting his friend turn around to face him, considering he was right behind him, there was a bit of surprise as Tadashi turned quickly. He was about to question his friend, but before he got a chance Tsukishima leaned in and kissed him quickly. It was awkward seeing as the height difference was a problem that he hadn’t thought about when he decided to do this. Somehow though, Tadashi couldn’t find it in himself to care.

He wrapped his arms around his friend’s neck and kissed him back, happy to ignore all of the questions and concerns running through his head to focus on the fact that he was basically living out a dream right now.

Tsukki was also the first to pull back, pushing his glasses up on his nose farther he rolled his eyes sighing as they were fogged up. He hadn’t ever had that problem, and it made Yama laugh.

“So, that game?” He asked and Tadashi was happy to avoid talking about what had just happened, and it was surprisingly easy to just go back to doing what they usually did, happy to sit next to his friend and battle in the game. If they sat closer than usual, or let their bodies get much closer, and kiss a few more times throughout the night then neither said a thing about it. It felt right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys so what do you think?!?!? Got some cute couple stuff, some drama, and some more insight into our favorite salt covered moon! Tsukki is one of my favorite characters ever so I can’t wait to keep going with this and see where it all ends up!!! Let me know what you guys think, all comments, kudos, and bookmarks help keep me going!!! Also, follow me on tumblr for more random Haikyuu and fandom posts! @iwantyourbloodonmylips Thanks guys! Stay safe!


	6. Permission Slips and School Showers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aobajoisi High gets their permission slips and everyone is excited for the retreat, well, almost everyone...

“Again!” Coach Mizoguchi yelled as the team ran through another layup, practicing the new set they had been trying to look at. He was writing a new notes down as Coach Irihata came over with a stack of papers, freshly printed, warm still.

“Call them over please.” He said nodding to his younger coach.

“Gather round! We’re going to take a break to talk for a bit.”

“Oh, what about? Is something happening?” Oikawa said excitedly as he gathered his team around.

“How is it that you have more in you then the first years?” Their Libero, Watari asked his captain as he rolled his eyes and sat.

“To be fair,” Iwaizumi commented, not able to help himself, “Kindaichi could have more energy if you took out all of the coffee you consume.” He said, which got a few laughs from the younger kids.

“Alright, settle down.” Coach said as he passed out the papers.

“A retreat? Oh, how exciting!” Kunimi said smiling big as he read over the rest of the paper.

“What is ‘Sexuality and Gender’ supposed to be about? This doesn’t sound like volleyball.” Matsukawa said and more people joined in agreeing in his question.

“Karasuno has decided that they wanted to expand people’s knowledge, and the schools have agreed that it would be a good idea, so they will be talking about different, things, and at the end of the week there will be a charity tournament. Other schools will be attending as well, so have your parents sign this paper and bring it back tomorrow. Coach and I will also be attending our own week long assembly about how to handle any questions or concerns that you could come up with, to learn how to handle it.” He spoke and Irihata laughed.

“No one will really be able to teach us how to handle you all except maybe Iwaizumi.” He said again and a few different people agreed and Oikawa just rolled his eyes.

“Uh, what about the captain of the team maybe?” He spoke up and pointed to himself, as if he didn’t, they wouldn’t know who the captain was. How could they forget.

“You are the worst of them all _captain_.” Takahiro said laughing as the team all generally just started relaxing and drinking water, talking about the different schools that would be there. Most of the team anyway.

“Alright! Enough! Everyone back to practice, we still have half an hour before clean up!” Was yelled as Oikawa just lead everyone back and decided to start a little differently, but neither of the coaches minded him taking over a bit. He was captain for a reason.

After practice, the team was changing and the Coaches were talking about a new plan for an upcoming game, when Yahaba came up to them and politely asked to speak to them for a moment. Bowing, he asked, and only stood up, shaking a bit, when they both turned to him to give him their full attention.

“Yes, what is it?” Mizoguchi asked setting his clipboard down.

“I can’t attend the retreat; my parents can’t sign this.” The setter said and shoved his hand out, holding the permission slip that he had been given earlier.

“Why not? Are your grades not up to par?” He said confused as he looked at the boy, he didn’t think he was struggling, but if so then he could be excused to study of course.

“No, sir, it’s not that, they just can’t sign it.” He said looking at the ground. He didn’t notice his best friend walking up beside him.

“Well it’s required, try to get them to sign it, if they still don’t want to, then we’ll talk about alternative options tomorrow.” He said and nodded to the other student.

“You two have a good night.” Irihata said, dismissing the boys. Yahaba jumped a bit looking to his friend.

“Why won’t your parents sign the paper? Are you in trouble at home?” Kyotani asked tilting his head a bit as they walked back to the club room to change. It was hard to ignore how distressed his friend looked, obviously not liking the answer he had been given.

“Uh, kind of, I’m sure it’s not a big deal if it’s required by the team though…” He said smiling suddenly, playing it down and letting the situation rub off. His stomach grumbled as they started changing.

“Hungry much? Do you want to stop by and get some buns on the way home?” Kyotani asked smiling talking about a new place he had found which should still be open by the time they get there.

“Uh, no it’s okay, I should get going.” He said waving his friend off.

“Are you sure Shigeru? You should come with us! That place sounds awesome!” Oikawa said interjecting himself into the conversation. He had already changed and taken a selfie putting it online, against Iwaizumi’s advice, who didn’t actually know he was in the picture, but he would when he checked his account later and saw himself tagged in the picture. Hopefully by that time Oikawa would be far enough away to not be attacked by his friend.

“I don’t have the money, it’s okay, plus I think I’m going to take a shower before I head home anyway.” He said waving it off, getting some strange looks from his teammates.

“Just take a shower when you get home.” Hanamaki said looking at him, narrowing his eyes. He had noticed the kid taking showers at the school more and more, which, while it wasn’t unheard of for during school practice, was kind of unusual considering how late it was. Usually the kids just wanted to eat and go home.

“Oh whatever, let’s just go, I’m starving Iwa-chan!” Oikawa whined, pulling on his friend’s sleeve, which earned his hand a hard smack that made the first years laugh. They all left and Shigeru gathered his things and headed to the showers the school had, happy that they were still unlocked. After a longer than usual shower he pulled his clothes on and took a deep breath as he walked past his house. It still hurt, but he couldn’t think about that right now. He had to get someone to sign his paper. Surely, he could forge it easy enough. He sighed as he opened the door and over to a small desk, with a woman behind it, working on a computer she clearly brought from home, doing her best to turn the under-funded shelter into more than it was.

“Do you have a bed available?” He asked looking at her, shifting on his feet, hating this part.

She gave him a sad look and shook her head. She was on the phone with someone, but she put her hand over the mouth piece.

“I’m sorry, the shelter off 5th street might?” She asked and put her finger up to tell him to wait a minute, as she went back to speaking to the person on the other end of the call, as she brought out her bag. She pulled out her wallet, which looked sad as it was. She pulled out her cash and handed it to him. Twelve dollars. It was his turn to give her a sad look.

“Thanks.” He said and turned headed back outside to decide if he wanted to try to walk downtown to the other shelter or not for the night. He decided to go back to the school, hoping that the gym might still be open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhh guys oh my god okay so I got this idea and I couldn’t help running with it, more will come don’t you worry but I didn’t want to make this chapter just like the other one with Nekoma having the “this is what we’re doing!” thing, so I decided to add some more to it. Keep an eye out for what will happen afterwards! We’re getting closer!!! Thank you, guys, so much for the support! As always, comment, kudos, or bookmark this to keep me going, I live off your approval, and you can follow me on tumblr if you want! @iwantyourbloodonmylips Thanks guys! Stay safe!!!!


	7. Can You Hear My Heartbeat?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team needs to make posters and signs for the upcoming retreat! Everything is going good until a group of punks shows up!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be warned, there is use of the work "homo" in here, I fought very much with this because I don't like using any derogatory words for gay, seeing as I've had them all yelled at me, however the character that says it I had to keep from using the word f** so, I made a compromise! That is all!

 

“I’m so excited!”

“We’re just making posters, it’s not that big of a deal.” Tsukki said, but it did nothing to deter Hinata.

“Oh, shut up.” Kageyama said and glared at the taller boy from where he sat on the ground with Hinata. Suddenly having grown quite protective of the boy, he didn’t like how often Tsukki came after him. It was annoying. Almost as annoying as Hinata’s hair was; all bouncy and stupid.

“He’s just grumpy because he doesn’t like his assignment and won’t tell anyone about it!” Noya said bouncing over, carrying paint and brushes as he sat down as well. The first and second years were in charge of making posters to put up around the city and school, to alert everyone to the charity tournament. The third years were working with Takeda to work on all of the business part of it. Booking speakers for the coaches, calling past and possible sponsors, trying to find the best deals for different things they needed.

“That’s rude to not tell your senpai Tsukki-chan!” Hinata yelled and stuck his tongue out. Noya hugged him tightly and smiled.

“Did you hear that Tanaka? Senpai…I just love the sound of that!”

“No fair! I’m senpai too ya know!” Tanaka said and raced over to redeem his title.

“Noya-san what are you wearing? It’s so stiff!” Hinata yelled and reached to pull at his shirt to look underneath.

“Dumbass, you can’t just start trying to undress people!” Kage yelled and smacked Hinata’s hand, who quickly turned bright red, apologizing immediately.

“It’s okay, don’t worry, it’s just my undershirt, it’s made to be extra sturdy for help with stuff.” He said and seemed a bit uncomfortable with himself before he saw Yachi and Tadashi coming over to the group.

“There you lovebirds are!” Noya called and laughed as they both turned bright red. Tadashi was quick to move to wave his hands saying something about them just getting more paint, despite the lack of paint they were carrying.

“Nishinoya leave the poor first years alone, especially Yachi…” Kinoshita said laughing along with Narita. They were so quiet usually it was easy for them to get lost in the shadow of the overly rambunctious members of their team.

“Thank you-“ Yachi started to say before they continued.

“Don’t want Ennoshita getting upset.” They said and both turned to stone from the look they received from their friend who was now behind the two first years. When everyone’s eyes traveled to him he softened his face and smiled.

“Shall we get started?” He asked walking over and taking a brush himself and sitting down to listen to their young manager who was in charge of leading them, something she was sure she wasn’t going to be able to survive.

She gave them the basic idea of what they were going for, what kind of design, and what sayings, and the important information that would have to be on the posters for the city, and then the information for the posters for the school. She made sure they knew that they couldn’t get paint on the floor or they would have to clean it up, and she showed them some general sketches she had drawn up for them to go off of, if they wanted.

“Wow! Yachi-chan is a really good artist!” Hinata said smiling big as took the notebook and brought it closer to his face to look at.

“Of course, she is! Why are you holding it so close to your face dumbass, you’re going to make yourself need glasses!”

“Hey!” Tsukishima added and Tadashi smirked leaning over to whisper something in his ear which made him go pink and close his mouth.

They boys all got to work, painting, writing, and generally making a mess of themselves in the process when Yachi was working on something in her notebook, counting and multiplying. Adding up numbers, looking genuinely worried. Enno couldn’t help but smile to himself as he watched her. He got up softly and sat next to her and leaned over. She was working with big amounts of numbers…

“What are you working on? If I may ask…” He said quietly as to not scare her. She turned to him and smiled before going back to her notebook, sliding it more towards him.

“140. I have to bake 140 cupcakes.” She said and threw her head into her hands sighing loudly. Some of the other kids looked over, but seeing Enno with her didn’t comment. It was pretty obvious that they both liked each other, and it was cute to see them together.

“What? That’s crazy, why?” He asked suddenly looking at the sheet again, noticing the numbers of teams, and coaches, and then counting in extra cupcakes, and then there was another area of prices of different kinds of batter, and other numbers mixed in. The entire thing took up the whole page.

“It’s my assignment, for the retreat, I’m making cupcakes and everyone oversees decorating two, one for themselves, and then we are sending one per everyone to a local homeless shelter that specializes in homeless youth.” She said explaining.

“So, I asked to do it, and I want to, but I didn’t take the baking of them all into consideration.” She said sitting back up, blushing a little at her small outburst.

“That’s crazy. But I’m sure everyone will have tons of fun doing it, and it will be a great cause!” He said rubbing the back of his neck as he looked to the side.

“I can help if you want, baking them I mean…” he offered up and looked to her, as she smiled at him big. She threw her arms around him and hugged him quickly.

“Thank you so much Ennoshita!” She said excitedly, pulling back as she moved closer to him and showed him her paper, pulling out her phone to show him the different kinds of frosting and batter and decorations she wanted to use. Counting in all the prices, and discounts she could get if she used different brands over another.

With his posters long forgotten, Kinoshita had kindly taken over finishing his, to make up for the comment from earlier. It was scary how similar Enno was to the team’s Captain and Vice-Captain. Like he was some sort of love child of mom and dad. He snickered to himself as he just continued to write on the thick paper and focused back on the conversation that was unfolding in front of him.

“You can’t do that stupid!” Kageyama yelled and Hinata wined, not happy that his setter didn’t approve of his poster.

“That looks like a kindergartener did it.” Tsukki laughed and Tadashi just smirked from where he sat and Kage snapped at him for commenting, mentioning how his wasn’t that much better off.

“Aw Bakeyama cares about me!” Hinata yelled and hugged him, getting marker all over his arm, which earned his head a smack. They both kept arguing and trying to get each other with the markers, while everyone else worked to stay clear of the zone of terror the two caused.

After another hour, 24 posters, and about twenty thousand phone calls later the team regrouped together, to go over the placement of the posters, what the third years had worked out, who would be sponsoring and helping out, who would be guest speaking, and who they were hoping to hear back from. Noya and Tanaka were excited to show off their masterpieces, to everyone, and Yachi spoke about the decisions Enno-chan had helped her make.

The team called it good for the day and they departed to put the signs up. They split up into small groups, and the seniors once again stayed behind, along with Noya and Yachi to work more on paperwork, and logistic things.

“It’s way too hot for me to go out right now! I’d burn up! Plus, I wanna stay with Asahi!” Noya had insisted, bringing a blush to the taller boys’ face, who agreed if it would mean that he would just stop saying things like that and help him work. Yachi was working with Shimizu on their budget.

Kageyama and Hinata were walking along trying to put posters up while simultaneously trying not to kill each other. Things had been different lately, and neither one of them could put their fingers on what it was. They just didn’t talk about it. And it wasn’t like they liked each other! That could not be it at all, because the other was possibly the grossest person they had ever laid eyes on!

Instead they walked with plenty of space between them so their arms wouldn’t touch, and they snapped at each other every chance they got.

“Dumbass you have to ask first before you put it up!” Kageyama yelled at him and pushed his head away as he pulled the tack out and then went into the store, asking if they could use their billboard. Once he had gotten permission he went outside to hang it up, but he was distracted by a group of punks near Hinata.

“That’s kind of the point! Are you stupid?” Hinata said staring at one of the boys, probably the leader seeing as he was in the middle. He tilted his head and didn’t blink as he waited for an answer. What he got instead was a push against the wall.

“Wanna run that by me again homo!?” The punk said bunching his hands in Hinata’s shirt, not caring about stepping on the posters he had dropped in the process. Hinata looked over to Kageyama, who would have guessed on seeing a panicked look, and who was ready to jump, seemingly frozen, just watching this train derail. Hinata was not worried one bit however when he gave the smallest smirk and turned back to the punk, wrapping his arms around him and kissing him, straight on the lips.

That was all it took to get Tobio running over, to stop the boys from ripping him to shreds. The main boy had already pushed him back and punched his jaw, albeit not very hard as he was caught off guard by the kiss. The other boys were not though, and they were already there pushing and trying to get at him.

Kageyama pulled one kid back by his shirt and threw him to the ground not caring what was being said to him. He then stepped in front of Hinata, who was not happy about that, throwing his own punches and kicks, more excited to be in his first real fight then he should be.

“Leave!” He yelled looking at the two remaining boys in the eyes, daring them to object. Using the last shred of common sense they had they just grumbled about their ‘stupid gay thing anyway,’ and left.

Once they were a safe distance away he turned and shook Hinata’s shoulders.

“What the hell was that?”

“They were making fun of the tournament and calling it gay, and all sorts of bad names and I told them that was the point, and he didn’t like what I had to say! I had it under control Kageyama I didn’t need you to step in and save me!” He yelled in his friend’s face. He didn’t know he was shaking, and when he went to pick up the posters to see if they could be saved, he noticed his hand, unable to stop it from shaking he smiled, assuming it was from the adrenaline of an actual fight.

It bothered him though when Kageyama didn’t say anything back. He turned to him and was surprised to see the taller boy looking sad. He looked broken, like he was the one who had lost the fight.

“They could have really hurt you Hinata, you shouldn’t have fought with them…” He said finally, quiet, unlike everything he’d ever said to the boy.

“They were making fun of…of…us!” He didn’t want to think about the names they had used, the awful words making fun of the team, the charity, of him. Much like the shaking, he didn’t notice he was crying until he felt the saltiness of the tears in the corner of his mouth. Kageyama moved then and wrapped himself around the smaller boy, who was insisting that he was fine, that he should just let go and move.

It wasn’t until Hinata had finally given up on telling him to let go, and pulled his own still shaking arms up against his friend’s chest and sobbed. He didn’t understand. He was supposed to be happy, he had stood up for himself, fought, and, he was going to say he won, but instead he was crying. Hard. Shaking, crying, unable to breath. It wasn’t until his chest started to feel tight that Tobio pulled back and sat them down on the sidewalk, next to their forgotten posters. He rubbed his back and put his head against his chest again.

“Listen to my heartbeat, it will help you calm down.” He said quietly. It was all he could say right now. And that’s just what Hinata did, he focused on the thumping off Kage’s heartbeat instead of his uneven breathing and soon enough he was breathing normally and tired. So tired. He was starting to drift when Kageyama moved a bit.

“We should get going, it’s starting to get dark.” He said looking to the sky.

“Sorry…” Hinata mumbled and pulled away. He hissed when he touched his jaw, a dark bruise already forming, and a few more on his other side, he frowned. He didn’t want to explain this to his mom, he wasn’t ready to tell her yet.

“Do you want to spend the night at my house?” Kageyama asked, reading his mind just by his thought process.

“My mom won’t be home until late, and I have ramen.” He said shrugging, talking up his house in ways he never had to before. His mother working so much had never been a good thing.

“Okay!” Hinata smiled big, not like usual, which seemed to put off rays of sunshine, but a smile that was so warm and pure that it seemed to melt Kageyama’s brain for just a moment.

“Uh, okay, let’s get the posters picked up and then we can head to my house. It’s not far.” He said and they dusted off their posters, throwing two of the five away because it was ruined, but talking about the three that made it through the ordeal. Hinata called his mom and told her that he was sleeping over at Kageyama’s house and laughed at something she said over the phone and then said goodnight. Looking over to his friend, who was already looking at him he smiled softly.

“You ready?” Hinata asked and Tobio nodded. Both boys knew that things would be different now, but as usual Hinata made sure his setter knew he would follow him no matter what happened. That thought made both of them a little more ready for what was to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I wanted to do something about the boys getting in trouble because of the posters and I’m super happy with how it turned out!!! Let me know what you guys think!!!! I’m so excited to be getting closer to the retreat!!! Ahhhh it’s coming up!!!! Notice any little hints or ode’s to anything yet? I can’t help but add them in. I just love it!! Let me know what you guys think!!! Comments and Kudos keep me going seriously!! It means so much to me when you guys comment especially, because it helps remind me that people actually do like it, and for someone like me who struggles so much with my depression it helps out so much!!! Follow me on tumblr of course for more Haikyuu and other fandom posts!!! @iwantyourbloodonmylips !! Thanks guys! Stay safe please!!!


	8. Hey, Hey, Hey Trouble!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the first practice after Hinata's run in with some trouble, and a couple of little birdies come to practice.

After what happened outside the shops, Hinata slept over with Kageyama and luckily, was able to avoid his mother the entire weekend so he wouldn’t have to tell her what happened or explain himself. He wasn’t as happy about getting in the fight now than he thought he would have been. He thought he’d be proud, excited to show off his bruises even, but he was worried. What would the team say? He wasn’t sure he was ready to explain himself. Hell, he wasn’t even ready to admit why he fought to himself, let alone other people.

Tobio was happy to comply, they didn’t mention it the entire weekend, they played video games a little, and mostly played volleyball for hours until they were hungry. The only weird thing was that the taller boy wouldn’t really look at Hinata. He seemed to always look away, not really want to be seen looking when he was caught, and otherwise wouldn’t look at him. Had the fight really messed up his face that much?

On Monday morning Hinata woke up early and raced out the house, telling his mother he had morning practice. When he met up with Kage at their usual spot they walked into the gym where they expected to see their team tossing and practicing before school. Thankfully, that much hadn’t changed.

“Hey, Yachi, toss to me!” Hinata called, dropping his bag and rushing over to hit the ball he waited for.

“Oh my god!” She called, dropping the ball and covering her mouth. She pointed at Hinata who stopped walking, freezing.

“What?” He called looking down at his shirt, then back at Kageyama who just shook his head knowing this would happen. Everyone else looked over, wanting to know what happened to cause their precious manager to scream.

“Uh, Daichi…” Ennoshita said as he stepped towards Yachi, putting his hand lightly on her shoulder. She turned more towards him, but couldn’t look away.

Their captain came over, Suga right next to him, and he stopped when he got in front of the boy. Suga sighed and let his head fall a bit. It was inevitable, one day he would show up with something like this, his jaw was an artistic shade of blue and purple. If it wasn’t on his skin they would have awed at the color.

“What happened?” He asked, voice loud, being heard over all of the chatter that had started once they saw their number 10’s face.

“I uh, sort of got in a fight? It wasn’t my fault though, they were making fun of our posters!” Hinata exclaimed, worried about his captain’s voice. It was like being yelled at by his dad, well, a dad. There wasn’t exactly anything to compare it too at home, but he assumed this was what it would be like if he did.

“You got in a fight because of the posters? You two were supposed to go together what happened?” Daichi said stepping closer to him and tilting his head slightly so he could assess the bruise and how bad it was. He looked over his shoulder to Suga who shook his head and looked disappointed.

“If this is going to cause issues for people we won’t do the retreat. Your safety comes first.” He said worried that perhaps this didn’t happen where Kageyama could be.

“I was there, but the dumbass got in a fight while I was asking to hang a poster!” He yelled back but the look that Daichi gave him stopped him in his tracks. He suddenly felt bad for calling him a dumbass.

“Please don’t cancel the retreat just because I was stupid!” Hinata cried out and felt terrible, he was nervous about them seeing the bruise of course, but he didn’t think that the Captain would be this worried about it.

“Dai, please, he was bound to get in a real fight one of these days, it wasn’t just because of the posters, plus, most kids get way worse from much less...” Suga spoke up, letting his words trail off once it got to the end. Hinata looked to him like he was seeing his guardian angle, and honestly, he was pretty close.

Kageyama looked towards their vice-captain with questions bubbling under the surface, and Daichi just looked sad as if he knew what he meant, personally.

“Fine, but I don’t want you fighting anymore, if anything happens or someone wants to start up I want you to leave. And no more propositioning anyone either, even in a joking way. I mean it, you are to important to be hurt for something that is supposed to be bringing awareness and help towards this very thing.” Daichi said then started to walk off.

“Don’t be late to classes everyone.” He said finally and left the gym, pulling his bag over his head to carry it across his chest as he headed towards the building.

Once their captains had left everyone kind of starred at Hinata, it was Tsukki who first smacked his hand against the ball, the sound echoing through the room and smacking Kageyama in the back of the head.

“I thought the King would be able to receive from a commoner.” He sneered, it was his way of taking the attention off of the orange haired child, and creating a more normal atmosphere.

It worked.

They were bickering in no time, while Noya and Tanaka laughed at the two of them, mocking them as they went. It was Enno and Yachi who eventually mentioned that the warning bell was about to ring and they should all put the balls back and head to class.

The rest of the day was sort of a blur. Everyone wanted to know what had happened to Hinata, pointing, commenting to themselves and out loud, some whispering behind his back. Everywhere he turned Kageyam was there next to him glaring at whoever was making to newest comment. He felt more like a bodyguard than ever before. He wasn’t sure if he hated as much as he thought he would have.

After school Hinata was happy to be back in the gym where he felt safe from stares, and knew that he could focus on volleyball and that was the only thing that mattered. The team was happy to comply with that as well, as they practiced drills the managers did their usual thing, keeping notes, commenting, talking to Takeda about different things.

It was about half way through their practice, after a block from Tsukki and Asahi that left Hinata seething, when a voice came from the doorway, turning everyone’s attention away from the practice match, and had Tsukishima sighing as he looked to Tadashi for pity.

“That’s my boy! Hey, hey Tsukki!” Bokuto yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth to make his voice even louder. Akaashi just stared on, uncaring as usual.

“Bokuto senpai!” Hinata yelled and ran over, forgetting their formation to say hi to their friend’s from Fukurodani.

“Hey there sunshine! What’s up? Daichi-san! Hey!” He said turning from the first year to his own third year friend. Their captain was surprised, to see them and apologized to Suga and Ukai before going over with most of the team in tow, to see why they were here.

By the time, they got to the couple some of the second and first years were already there, and Bokuto was telling them about how he ‘basically saved Akaashi’s life on the way over!’ Akaashi was not as interested in the story, insisting that half of what was being said was wrong. After he was finished telling the story, Akaashi had hit Bokuto over the head twice, and groaned asking him to be quiet three times.

“So, what are you guys doing here?” Hinata asked practically vibrating from the excitement he shared with the newcomers. He had beat Daichi to the punch, but everyone waited. Akaashi spoke up this time instead.

“We came to turn in our permission slips. The school’s fax machine is broke, and we have Monday’s free of practice so Coach had Bokuto run these over.” He said nodding, as if that gave reason enough why he was there as well. No one commented, no one questioned, no one even really mentioned that wherever Kotaro went, Keiji went as well. They were a package deal, and to the outsider it might seem as if Akaashi was doing this against his will, everyone who neither either of them at all knew that they both wanted it. They balanced each other out well.

Daichi smiled at them and Suga extended his hand to take the papers from the other vice-captain. Hinata again said something to demand attention, because it wouldn’t be normal without it.

“Well I’m sure we can stay a bit to practice, if Daichi and Coach is okay with it!” He said smiling big, eyes closing. Akaashi and most of the others walked off to talk about what they were currently doing, Tadashi immediately following the older boys, always eager to learn.

“That’s awesome! It’s going to be so fun! I can’t wait for the ret-“ The short boy was cut off by Bokuto starting at him intensly. He moved, tilting his head and then pulled back.

“Well, well looks like we got ourselves a bad ass over here…” He said smirking and looking to Kageyama who was, as usual, standing behind Hinata, and some other second years he couldn’t remember the names of.

“Dumb-ass is more like it.” The setter spoke laughing as Hinata started to defend himself, when again he became quiet when his elder spoke.

“Aw, is someone upset because they weren’t the first to leave marks on him?” He said raising an eyebrow. He leaned down, bending over the boy, to speak in his year, but still maintain eye contact with the much taller boy behind him.

“I think it looks hot.” He said and quickly jumped up when Akaashi yelled at him to leave the first year alone and come get in formation.

Daichi did the same to the remaining kids that stood by the door. Hinata was almost the same color as his hair, and avoided looking at Kageyama who certainly had real steam coming out of his ears.

He didn’t know why he was so angry, because what did he care if someone else thought Hinata was hot, he didn’t, so he didn’t have a say in who did. But the idea, of anyone thinking of his Spiker like that, sent him into a sort of rage. He got in line, always with Hinata, and hit the ball with all his might, making sure they were unstoppable.

And that they were. From Hinata’s perspective, it seemed as if the different opponents in a practice setting, brought out the best in their duo, but being as short as he was, things often went over his head. Most importantly he missed how Tobio seemingly kept Hinata to himself, only setting to him, making sure he tossed just so it would wiz by the Fukurodani boys. He wasn’t letting anything distract Hinata, or letting them spot the momentum at all. He was, by all definitions being protective. It was a force to be reckoned with and Shimizu made sure to note on it.

However, it was not such a good thing when they were trying to practice. Finally, Daichi had to set them both out on the bench, because the other players needed a chance to practice. Neither liked that and the confusion on both their faces was enough to make Suga give them a sympathetic frown.

“Don’t worry! You two can probably sneak in some extra practice after they leave anyway.” He said and smiled, turning back to what he was doing.

“Hey, hey, hey Akaashi!” The famous line made its way through the gymnasium and left Kageyama rolling his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you guys think, honestly, I had no idea what I was doing for this chapter, I had such a shitty little outline in my head, but I think it still turned out okay. It’s been so crazy with me recently, my mom is in the hospital, so it’s kind of like taking on her role for my sister, on top of maintaining my own mental state, which isn’t going very well, so please keep comments, and kudos coming, they really encourage me to keep writing even when I’m severely sleep deprived and never want to open word again. Really, thank you to those who do, now that we’re getting closer to the retreat I’m going to have more of an idea what to do because, well, there will be so much to do! As always you can follow me on tumblr if you want, I also take prompts, questions, comments, or requests there if you want!!! @iwantyourbloodonmylips Thanks guys! Stay safe!


	9. A Hot Topic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noya struggles to come to terms with the realization that this is really happening.

Nishinoya considered himself to be rather fashionable man. His family made sure he had the clothes he liked, and needed for school. He was currently wearing his favorite black jeans, a cute tank top, his usual pair of suspenders, and a jacket over it. He was always layering and it drove Asahi crazy. Like right now.

“Yu, it’s so hot, please take the jacket off! You have enough layers on without it, it’s not safe.” He said as they walked around the outside mall. They were supposed to be finishing their poster boards for the retreat that started tomorrow, but Noya wanted to go out instead. Poor Asahi couldn’t ever say no to his boyfriend.

“I can’t take it off, it looks funny, you know.” He said and rolled his eyes as he self-consciously pulls on his jacket.

“No one is even looking at you.” He said whining as he was pulled into yet another store.

“Hi! What can I help you boys find today?” The sales woman said as they entered her store. Noya just smiled and talked to her proudly.

~

“Noya-senpai is here!” Hinata yelled and ran over to greet him. The team was setting up everything tonight, sleeping there, and the other teams would be showing up the next day. Noya was not excited.

“Where is Kiyoko, I have to talk to her about something.” He said rubbing his neck nervously as Asahi carried in his poster board in along with a second to start setting up in the hallway with the rest.

“She’s talking with Yachi-san and Ennoshita-senpai!” Kageyama called as he came over tossing a bag of volleyballs to him.

“Daichi says to fill all of these up.” He explained and crossed his arms over his chest smiling.

“Did he say for me to fill it up or for you to fill it up?” He said raising an eyebrow and they started arguing as Suga called them over to both fill them up as he was working with Narita and Kinoshita to get the sleeping bags put in the right rooms.

“Asahi, I’ll be right back okay!” Noya called and Tanaka came over wrapping his arm around him.

“Where were you last night? You were supposed to come over to finish our posters! I’ve been freaking out all night.

“So have I!” He said quietly even though he was making his nervousness known, waving his arms around.

“I went over to Asahi’s house, and then dragged him to the mall. I’m going to talk to Kiyoko-san now, I can’t do this. I’m not going to do the presentation.” He said as they came up to the three students. One of each class, they all looked to the two second years with questioning eyes.

“Yes?” The older manager asked pushing her glasses up.

“I’m not going to be presenting, or staying the night, I just thought you should know. I’ll be here for the days but I can’t present anything.” Noya said trying to be tough about his decision, and putting his foot down.

“What? You have to Senpai!” Yachi said and Ennoshita gave his friend a concerned look and then took Yachi by the hand and they went to the kitchen to make sure they had all the items they needed for the food.

“I know this is scary for you, Nishinoya, but you have to, it’s too late to back out now.” She spoke softly but determined. She checked her clipboard and wrote some things down. Why did she always have a clipboard?

“No, you don’t get it I can’t!” He said holding his hand over his chest, pulling on his shirt because Asahi was right, it was hot today.

“Yes, you can, I’m sorry, we’re all a little nervous, but we can’t just back out.” She said pulling out her phone then, answering and holding up her finger as she answered and started talking to someone about the directions of how to get to the school.

Noya turned to his friend then, and Tanaka shrugged. He had to find Asahi, now. “Where is, what’s, uh, what is Asa doing?” He asked looking around, his breathing getting fast. He was starting to panic. He couldn’t present this, everyone would put things together, and they would know. They would realize what was going on and he wasn’t ready for that. He didn’t want to do this, he couldn’t! And they were going to make him anyway? No. He just wouldn’t come that day.

“Yu, calm down, what’s wrong?” His friend asked as he went over and put a hand on his back to help calm him down. He was panting and walking around almost in circles looking for someone that wasn’t even in the building at the moment.

Nishinoya jumped and flinched away from his friend. “I need As…I need, I…” He said and started stuttering, he couldn’t talk. He tripped over his own feet and landed face first on the gym floor. Daichi and a few of the first years looked over from where they were.

“Tanaka, go get Asahi!” Daichi called and ran over knowing exactly what was happening. He had done this before a few times, Noya would go so hard, and be full force so often that when something bad, something that was too much his body couldn’t handle it. It didn’t help he was wearing a jacket when everyone else was barely wearing a shirt.

His friend wasn’t understanding what was going on. He was supposed to be Yu’s best friend, but he didn’t know why the captain seemed to understand. He went and started searching for the other boy.

“Asahi!” He called as he ran through the hallway, and then when he went to the other gym where they were setting up the sleeping spaces.

“Asahi! There you are! Noya needs you, he’s like freaking out, and Daichi said to come get you.” He said as he stopped running for a moment. The taller boy stood immediately and headed for the gym, running actually. Tanaka picked up again after him, bringing Suga with them, wanting to know what was going on.

When they got to the gym there was a circle around the young libero.

“Get back! Everyone out except for Daichi.” Asashi said sternly, not having used this voice sense the last time he was this pumped during a serious game. The first years were scared but they scattered, followed by Suga who was pulling out the mother role, comforting Tanaka who was worried demanding to know why he wasn’t being allowed in. Suga said he would explain once they got out. Everyone else had left already. The third years shut the door and Asahi got to work. He sat Noya up who was shaking and curled in a ball, half out of it from heat exhaustion.

“Noya I’m taking the jacket off, and the binder.” Asahi said clearly, telling him, not asking. He wasn’t waiting for his younger boyfriend to argue. Although he tried, he really did. He was trying to put up a fight but he wasn’t strong enough too. Daichi was unzipping his jacket, pulling it off, and undoing his suspenders, knowing what Asahi was headed for next.

“How long has he had this on?” The captain asked as his friend reached under his shirt to start undoing the under garment.

“I don’t think he took it off for bed last night, he’s been so stressed about the retreat…” He said speaking about their friend as if he wasn’t there, that only made him more upset. When the thing finally came undone he pulled it down from under his shirt. They then took the water bottle they had next to him and sprayed half of it on him and his chest, the rest, he put to his mouth and helped him drink.

He was crying now and Daichi nodded and left the two to finish the rest now that he wasn’t medically at risk of anything.

“Yu, love, you can’t keep doing that, it’s going to do more harm than good. Why?” he asked looking towards the binder. Noya just sniffed, rubbed his eyes and looking down to his chest as he let his arms fall again as he started crying. The water made his shirt stick to his chest, his abs showing through as much as small, getting smaller, but still very prominent now in the position and the liquid, his breasts.

“I know baby, but you were about to pass out from heat stroke. We had too…” He said and shook his head.

“It’s not fair…why do I have to talk about it?” He said through his attempts at deep breaths.

“Because no one else is qualified enough.” He said trying to appeal to his logical side.

“And they deserve to know…they are so worried.” He said pointing outside, realizing that that would be more realistic.

“Whatever. I don’t…they won’t understand.” He said shaking his head as he curled up, his breathing evening out as he curled up against Asahi.

“Your best friend? Your first years that look up to you? Your classmates? You mean them? The boys who treat you like a brother already? The one’s who look up to you? The one’s who want to be just like you? You think they won’t understand? You think they won’t hear what you have to say and be proud of you for being so strong.” Their ace spoke softly.

“Who wants to be like me?” Yu asked raising an eyebrow.

“I believe I heard Yamaguchi speaking something of the sort, saying he wished he could be like Noya-senpai.” He said smiling big. He pulled back and handed him his jacket to put on over his shirt. The boys stood up, and collected their things as they walked together back to the team who was outside the door, and Daichi and Suga were taking the time to explain to the boys the importance of drinking water and not getting over heated during the hot weather they were having.

“You guys really are like parents.” Noya said laughing and got everyone’s attention who then left their captain to go and gush over him.

“I’m fine, I just got too hot.” He said rubbing the back of his neck, and running a hand through his hair.

“Shall we keep getting ready?” He asked wanting to change the subject.

“How about we take a break and go get some ice pops? My treat!” Suga said smiling big and earning cheers from the team.

The boys talked about their excitement for the retreat, the managers and a few of the boys stayed behind because they were waiting for a few different people to arrive, making sure everything was as set up as it could be before dozens of boys came barreling into their school.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you guys think? I wanted to do a chapter that really focused on my baby noya!!! “tomorrow” the boys will all show up and it will be awesome and that one will be much more fun, and much harder work for me keeping up with all the kids and all the talking oh my gosh!!!!! As usual, comments, kudos, and bookmarks keep me going, it’s been really hard, but I’m making it work, and all the support really helps give me the extra motivation I need to finish writing these! Also follow me on tumblr for questions, comments, prompts or requests and a bunch of other shit! @iwantyourbloodonmylips Thanks guys!!! Stay safe!


	10. From Russia With Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Russian family welcome's a Japanese boy, and they all have a good time.

“What do you mean you don’t know what to pack? It’s just a retreat, we’re not going to the beach or anything.” Yaku said rolling his eyes over the phone. How he always got roped into the one to have to deal with this oversized toddler he didn’t know.

“Well coach said it wasn’t going to be focused on volleyball, so do I need to bring all of my stuff? Or just my knee pad’s? Do I need my kneepads? What are we going to be doing, my mom doesn’t want me taking any good clothes if we’re going to be getting dirty, but she wants to make sure I’m prepared if we are going to need to dress up! So, I don’t know what to pack!” Lev cried into the phone and his mother could be heard in the background saying something in Russian, but the tone she used was universal for ‘if I have to tell you to be quiet one more time…’.

“Okay, calm down, I’ll come over and throw some stuff in your bag for you okay? What’s your address?” He asked grabbing his keys and slipping a jacket on. He wasn’t usually one to offer up something like this, but he found it annoyingly easy to be around the boy. To want to help him, to want to protect him, and he could tell, somehow, either in his tone, or how he had been acting at school the last few days that Lev was worrying about the retreat for some reason, so he wanted to help him best he could

“Oh, thank you Senpai! I’ll text it to you okay? My mom wants to know if you want to stay for dinner! Please stay Yaku-san!” He spoke excitedly and Morisuke couldn’t help but smile. He had friends, lots in fact, and a whole team of people who enjoyed his time, but no one ever begged him to come over or stay for dinner. It was nice.

He agreed and hung up the phone before he let the first year talk him into any more ridiculous things.  On the way over he sent a snapchat to his captain and sighed as he captioned the picture.

‘Headed to help our younglings pack…’

He quickly got a picture back, Kuroo laying on Kenma’s bed, his boyfriend playing on his game like usual as he smirked.

‘Sure you are, bet I can guess which one it is too…have fun. ;)’

Yaku rolled his eyes and put his phone away. Kuroo was no fun, ever sense Kozume said something about him and Lev being a couple, he hadn’t let up on it. He would be lying if he said he had never thought about it, he couldn’t really help what he thought of in his dreams, and if he popped up every once in a while when he was in the shower then, that was normal too. Right?

He didn’t really like the idea of being stuck in a room, with the first year, the rest of his team, and three other teams for a week. His only saving grace was that, because of the kind of retreat it was, he hoped the jokes would be knocked off.

After about 20 minutes he arrived at the door, cute, quaint, and much different looking than the more traditional style Japanese homes that surrounded it.

“Senpai!” Lev yelled and swung the door open and hugged the shorter boy, almost knocking him down with his excitement. Without the pressure or the jokes from the team it was easier for him to laugh and hug the kid back.

“Hey, come on, move, let me out of your death grip.” He said and walked in, slipping his shoes off he looked up and saw a woman, not much taller than him, in fact…no taller than him, with silver hair and a thin athletic body.

“Hello, Mrs. Hiaba, thank you for allowing me over.” He said bowing to the woman, he was courteous if anything.

“Oh, please, don’t worry that about!” She said excitedly, but in broken Japanese. He could see where Lev got his energy from. The woman was excited show the new boy around the house.

“I’ve only see the other young boys here, why not you?” She said trying her best to talk, despite Lev whining about wanting to take his senpai to his room.

Yaku let his cheeks go pink as he was finally pulled away from the questions of Lev’s mother, and into the back room. He walked in and started looking around immediately, his friend made a note to shut the door after saying something to his mom about not disrupting him.    

“Sorry about her, she just got really excited when I said you were coming over.” He said laughing and then let his eyes go wide as he started to speak again.

“Not that she knows about your or anything, she just, thinks it’s cool that you’re coming over, ya know, to help” he said thinking back to the gym incident that happened a few weeks ago.

“It’s okay, so, what do you usually wear?” He asked moving the bag they would be packing things into, on his lap as he sat on his kouhai’s bed. Lev blushed but went about showing him what he usually would wear on the weekends, and then showing him his uniform, as if Yaku didn’t see it every game, and somehow it was a few hours later, dinner was being called for, and they were in the middle of looking through some of the photo albums the younger boy had in his room.

Morisuke did not plan on having this much fun, really, he didn’t, but it was easy. There was no Kuroo, which took away most of the stress, there were no other kids to look up to him for advice, or how to act, Lev did his own thing, and the two of them worked well together.

As they were headed downstairs for dinner Mr. Haiba was there and greeted Yaku like he did his own son. After he was released from a hug he couldn’t help but smile big, the whole family was warm, and he didn’t realize how relaxed he had been all day. They ate, laughed, and everyone treated him like one of the family, until it came time to wash up after dinner then he was being escorted back to the bedroom so they could finish packing as Lev’s mother and father talked.

Yaku hadn’t meant to stay so late, but before he knew it, it was almost eleven, and he was apologizing for overstaying so much, and simultaneously apologizing to his mother and telling her he was on his way. Mr. Haiba told, more than asked him that he would drive him home, and they weren’t in the car for more than a few minutes before he cleared his throat.

“My son really looks up to you.” He said not looking to the boy, who, out of respect and a sudden worry that he might kill him, was staring at the older man, unblinking.

“He talks about you quite often, and only says good things, and now I see you, and I am happy to see that it was all true.” He offered Yaku a glance. He nodded about to thank his friend’s father, but he put a hand up.

“This retreat, they don’t have things like this in Russia. They don’t care about people like Lev there, that’s why we moved, part of it anyway, and I just want you to know that while I appreciate the openness of you and your team, I will not tolerate any acting. My son has been through enough from kids at school, and if I learn that this is in anyway ingenuine I will not be happy.” He said as they pulled up to turn onto Yaku’s street.

He wanted to ask so many questions, about Lev, and what he had been through, about the boys in Russia, but he figured he would ask later, after all, they would have all week to focus on things like that.

“I can assure you Mr. Haiba my team and I, our school, all of us, are very accepting of all kinds of people, and we enjoy Lev and I can’t personally even imagine the team or my life without him now.” He said speaking truthfully, hoping he believed him. He nodded and thanked him for coming over as they pulled up to his house.

As he got out of the car he thanked the man for driving him home, and for having him over and smiled as he shut the door, hoping that he would be able to take him up on his offer to come over again soon. As he opened his own door, he slid off his shoes and sighed as he heard his mother walking out. It was worth it though, for the night he had, he would deal with his mother being upset.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so sorry guys, that was probably shit, I started it like two weeks ago I feel like, idk, so yeah, sorry, but I’m going to try to get another one done omg I’m so sorry I’m a piece of shit ahhhh okay so I’m going to try and do one more before scene and then do the first morning okay?!?!?!?!?! As always follow me on tumblr @iwantyourbloodonmylips you are welcome to go there and bug me about posting and updating whenever you want, you guys are the ones that keep me going promise! Stay safe guys!!!


	11. An Extra Bag and a Bed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yahaba doesn't know how to feel about the retreat, and with the weekend coming up it's getting harder to hide his secret.

Shigeru Yahaba had mixed feelings about the upcoming retreat. He didn’t feel like dealing with the questions about “Why don’t you have your bag and all your clothes?” “Why don’t you have a sleeping bag,” but he was very happy about having a steady place to sleep every night, and food to be provided every day, multiple times a day, and a shower whenever he wanted, although he could get that from his own school.

Kyotani however, was very excited about the retreat and was having a hard time hiding it. He did have a reputation to hold up. He was walking through the cafeteria, it was the last school day before their vacation and he was looking for his friend to sit with. Usually they met at a particular staircase but he wasn’t there. Kyo was used to his friend eating hot lunch. He had started doing it more recently…

~

“My parents and I just agreed that it would save money, sense I can just work in the cafeteria and get my lunch for free.”

“But you never had to get a hot lunch before?” Kyotani had asked and he had never seen his friend look upset like that. He had lowered his shoulders and shrugged, not really giving a distinct answer. He got the feeling that his friend didn’t need to be bothered anymore.

~

Today though he was late, and he noticed he had been late the last few Friday’s also. It was truly concerning, but finally he saw his friend, walking over with a small bag next to him.

“Kyo-san!” He said smiling as he came over and walked up the few stairs to where they would sit. He sat and pulled put a small box with a sandwich and an apple. His water bottle was already filled up.

“What’s in the bag?” He asked scowling at it, placing blame on the inanimate object for his friend’s lateness.

“Oh, don’t be so sensitive _koinu_.” The shorter boy said with a smirk as he dug into his lunch, as if he hadn’t eaten sense yesterday.

“Don’t call me a puppy, it’s bad enough when Oikawa calls me a dog.” He said rolling his eyes. He hated that nickname, but he didn’t really mind when Yahaba called him pet names, but at school, Oikawa would always hear.

Yahaba just smiled and kept eating, scarfing down his food he sat back, and drank all of his water. He had been drinking so much more water recently, but it didn’t help much. He was still losing weight, and eventually someone was going to notice, and he really didn’t want that person to be his best friend. There were some things he was okay with no one knowing.

“Seriously what’s in the bag?” He asked grabbing the bag before he was able to answer. Yahaba got up and smacked the back of his friend’s head over his died stripes.

“Rude-tani!” He yelled and tried to get it back, but the other boy had already stood up to move away so he couldn’t grab it back.

“Why do you just have a bag full of food?” He asked pulling out a sandwich, a few different fruits, and some crackers and chips. He looked over to his friend with a confused expression,

“Did you steal these from the cafeteria?” Kyotani asked face serious now. It was bad enough how weird he had been acting, but now he was stealing from the school!

Yahaba grabbed the bag back as the bell rang. He was putting the food back in the bag as he glared at his friend.

“Don’t ask stupid questions Kentaru.” He said sternly. He didn’t use his first name often, but when he did, it was for a good reason. He had only said it a few other times because he had either done something really good, or really bad, like now. He couldn’t explain why he needed food for the next few days right now.

“Go to class.” Yahaba said, finally, and walked off, leaving him to throw the trash away. He put the food in his locker before he headed off to class, stopping only to refill his water bottle.

He didn’t say another word until he got to practice that afternoon. As soon as he got to the fitting room his eyes met his friend’s, who was talking to Iwazumi. They didn’t stop, he only turned and gave their vice-captain his full attention instead of his friend.

It broke his heart that he couldn’t talk to his friend, but he didn’t want to get into everything right now, he couldn’t afford for everyone to know. Not yet, not until he had a plan, and had something set up.

The rest of practice went by relatively well, just slightly awkward because of the two of them not talking, but if anyone noticed, they didn’t say anything. It wasn’t until after practice that someone spoke up about it.

“Yahaba-sensei are you coming to get meat buns with us?” Kindaichi asked hoping he would say yes, the whole team was starting to worry, rumors started bad things.

“Oh, no thank you!” He said waving them off, smiling as he pulled off the jersey, leaving his undershirt on until he was able to get in the shower.

“Why not?” Matsukawa asked staring at him after he pulled off both shirts, like most of the boys did, unless they already had them off.

“I’ve got to get home soon, curfew.” He said shrugging as he moved over from one foot to another.

“Oh okay, then I’m going to go ahead and close the showers and gym up.” Matsukawa said looking away but waiting for his reaction.

“I…okay.” Yahaba said noticing how everyone was watching him. He knew if he said anything then someone would want to question what he needed the gym and showers left open for if he had to get home soon. He just pulled on his school jacket and started gathering his things, getting ready to go, kissing his chance at a shower away.

He was needing to hurry though, he had found a shelter that could save him a bed for a few days at a time, so he would have a place to stay over the weekend. But he had to get there by a certain time to be able to hold his reservation. He grabbed his backpack, his bag from earlier that had caused the fight between him and Kyotani earlier, and then another bag that he started carrying around. No one commented on him having three different bags, and let him go without another word.

He got to the shelter with five minutes to spare, and the woman at the front desk gave him a look, before waving him through the door.

He thanked her and then went through to the back of the room to his bed for the weekend. It was a small cot, a blanket, pillow, and a small oranges crate, up on his side, for a night stand. There was a plug next to the bed and that was it. It was all he had, but for now it was his. He smiled and sat on the bed before his smile faded, realizing what he had just smiled at. It made him sad again before another woman came up to him.

“Back again?” She asked as she looked around, the woman had been in and out of the shelter’s and the two had grown to make an unlikely friendship. She knew he was in school, and he knew she did drugs, but neither one said anything about it to anyone.

“Yes, did you eat today?” He asked, already knowing the answer. He pulled his backpack off, and then moved to get his other bag, and pulled out another sandwich as he handed it to her. She smiled and bowed to him, thanking him she sat down on the bed next to him and they talked about their days as he ate an apple and finished off another water bottle. He plugged his phone in, and folded his school uniform as nicely as he could as he changed into another shirt he had gotten from the shelter. It was a little big on him, but he didn’t have enough to complain about it.

After they were finished eating she said goodnight and the lights were turned off as he lied down under the blanket, he pulled his phone out, and contemplated texting his friends an apology, but he fell asleep before he was able to make up his mind. He was always tired recently, he couldn’t help it, but something about living in the shelter’s and hiding it from people was exhausting.

He had nightmares about the team finding out about the shelter and kicking him off the team from shame. He had another were Kyotani purposed to him and told him to marry him so they could live together.

That one was what woke him up and stayed with him the rest of the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, now I have that one done I think I’m going to actually start on what is possibly the biggest, hardest chapter I’m going to have, this and the rest from now on, because I don’t only have to worry about one team, but all of them. It is going to be hard, also these people in the waiting room in the hospital have talked about 1-sports 2-penny’s and the pros and cons of keeping them 3-bugs and the best traps for them and now 4-racing. Just sense I’ve been writing. Anyway, happy Mother’s Day guys! Especially for those like Yahaba who aren’t with their parents, or like me who’s mothers are in the hospital. As always you can add me on tumblr @iwantyourbloodonmylips or follow me on pintrest @abusemesoftly I have a very big board just for Haikyuu! Thanks guys! Stay safe!


	12. Day one! Arrival of the fittest!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The retreat is finally here, everyone arrives and constructive chaos ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys, I hope you know how much I love yall, and how much I appreciate your comments and kudos! I even made an excel spread sheet for this chapter, so you know how much I work for my fics. xD I also have had no sleep and I’m about to die, but oh well! Let’s get started! (((**added after pre-write...** I like to think I'm funny...making titles is one of my favorite things ever...hehe)))

Today was the big day. The busses would start arriving soon and the Karasuno team was a chaotic mess. The poor managers were trying to get everything set up for the coaches, while helping the boys get all their projects finished, setting up groups for the activities, and making sure that all of the sleeping areas were ready.

“Kageyama come on! The guys are going to be here so soon!” Hinata yelled as he ran through the gym to make sure all of the volleyballs were aired up. The first years were in charge of preparing the gym, they had chairs to set up, balls to air up, and posters to hang.

“Don’t run you’re going to knock into someone dumbass!” The setter yelled running after the shorter boy. Ever sense the fight they had gotten in they had been extremely close, and neither boy had a word about it. Ignoring the looks the other would give them, ignore their shoulders when they would bump up against each other’s. Everyone else, however, wasn’t so quiet about it.

“When is the wedding again?” Tsukishima said raising and eyebrow as he walked behind the two loud boys. He and Tadashi were sitting chairs up right in circles, all facing the stage though, so that before they were put in groups they could all listen to the introduction first.

“Don’t be so tough on them, they don’t know anything yet.” He said and smiled at his friends. Tsukki and he hadn’t talked about anything yet, but they too had been much closer lately. They spent more nights together, they had even held hands a few different times. It was easy and it was perfect for them. It didn’t matter to Yamaguchi if he wanted to call someone his boyfriend, he was content with how they were now. He was, really.

“Whatever, do we have enough chairs set up yet?” He asked as he sighed stretching, taking off his glasses to clean them on his shirt. They had made all the circles Kiyoko had said to, so surely they were finished and could go and be somewhere quiet before this whole thing started, preferably somewhere private so Kei could relax with his Tadashi.

“Come on.” The shorter boy said laughing as he took his wrist and guided him out of the gym, slipping out easy thanks to the other first year being distracted. They were tossing balls back and forth, seeing which ones needed to be fixed, while simultaneously insulting each other at every given chance. Typical.

As they were walking to the halls were the sleeping bags were Tanaka yelled and there was a crash. They didn’t stop to wait and find out what it was, he could handle it.

Tanaka however was not so sure. He and Ennoshita were helping Yachi set up the cafeteria for the teams to eat. That meant that they had to set the tables up, and set the food line up so they could actually have the station ready. They would only have to worry about dinner tonight, which would give Yachi and whoever was helping her time to prepare.

After a life threatening interaction with a specific table Tanaka was ready to call it quits. He was ready for the guys to be here. He was ready to get on with this retreat, and play around, prank the older boys, and mess with the first years. In short, he was ready to wreak havoc.

“Tanaka-senpai please be careful!” Yachi said and closed her eyes bowing in apology at the older boys. He puffed his chest up a bit at that and smiled.

“It’s no problem for us!” He cheered and grabbed Enno, wrapping his arms around his neck and they laughed, messing around. Yachi, while amused, wasn’t exactly comforted by the two of them rough housing around in the kitchen. She was being put in charge of so much for this retreat, and it was her chance to show that she was worthy of being a team manager. She wanted to show Kiyoko that it was alright for her to graduate and leave because the team was left with a good competent manager that could hold her own. So, there was just a little bit of pressure.

“Guys! Nekoma is here!” Noya could be heard running around yelling. Yachi’s eyes went wide as she sighed and picked her clipboard up and walked with Enno out to the front. Tanaka had run out as soon as he heard. The third years all came out of the school building, where they had been setting up the rooms for the coaches. The first years all made their way outside also, and the team lined up to greet their friends.

The bus stopped and the door opened and the coaches were the first to set out. Takeda stepped forward and bowed, greeting the two coaches.

“Thank you for coming, we are so happy to have you!” He said and they started talking. Behind them Kurro walked out, followed closely by Kenma.

“I’m here, you’re lives just got better.” He said pulling his sunglasses off as he looked to the team. Daichi just laughed and rolled his eyes as he went over and greeted his fellow captain. Hinata also went over and said hi to his friend as the rest of the team filed out of the bus.

“Hinata!” Lev yelled and went over, his bag hitting people along the way as he made his way to the shorter boy. The energy between the two could be seen from across the way. It made Tsukki sick. He rolled his eyes at the same time that Yaku did as he spoke under his breath.

“Hey, glasses, where do we set our bags?” The short boy asked looking up to the first year.

He looked over and then down and scoffed at how short his ‘senpai’ was. He just sighed and Suga walked with the first years and Yaku to show the Libero where to set the bags. He seemed to be carrying a few different bags.

“Are all those yours?” Suga asked smiling at the boy. Yaku looked at Suga and laughed and shook his head dropping it all on the floor in the corner of the room where the beds were marked for Nekoma.

“No, I promised Lev that if he behaved on the bus I’d take his bags for him so he could go straight to seeing the other first years. And then the other first years started being roudy so I did the same with them,” He laughed grabbing his and one other bag and setting them on top of two of the beds next to each other.

“I almost had to do it with Kuroo too, but Kenma told him to calm down, thankfully.” He said rolling his eyes as he walked back to the front room where they were all talking.

“Suga!” Kai spoke up and went over and smiled hugging his friend.

“I just got finished talking to Dai-san, and I think it should be really fun, I’m excited, I’m glad that we have captains on each group though, let me know if you need anything.” He spoke up and smiled. Yaku just rolled his eyes and was basically tackled by Noya who immediately started talking about whatever it was that Libero’s talk about.

Asahi was talking to Yamamoto about different things and Yachi smiled watching them interact. She knew it would only be a better of time before another team showed up, and then the others, but she enjoyed them being calm, and out of her hair as she worked. She and Kiyoko went to head to the gym to keep setting up when they were stopped by Shibayama.

She braced herself for the boys to come over and start interrogating them, but she only hoped it wouldn’t be bad already, they had three more teams coming, surely the annoying fan boys would wait until they were in numbers.

“Do you need any help with anything?” He said bowing to Yachi. That, she wasn’t used to. Kiyoko just gave a small smile and went back to walking inside. She wanted to see how Yachi would handle the situation.

“Uh, it’s okay, you can stay with the boys.” She said and noticed how he looked over to them and sighed.

“Uh, or, you could help us! If you wanted, we are still working on making sure all of the cots are set up for the coaches.” She said and nodded her head feeling confident. The boy smiled and nodded as he followed her to help.

It wasn’t but half an hour after that when Fukurodani showed up. The cots were set up, and they were just hanging posters up and setting up boards that they would need.

The team lined up again, like before, but with Nekoma behind them as the bus came to a stop.

“Hey hey hey!” Bokoto yelled pushing past his coach to jump the last few steps and land in front of the rest of the team.

“Oho?” Kuroo said behind as he smiled getting pumped.

“Oh, ho oh! What’s up?!” He yelled and went over high fiving Kurro and hugging Daichi against his will.

“Thank you for having us!” The two managers said in unison. Kiyoko and Yachi smiled bowing to them as well.

“Thank you for coming.” They helped show the girls where they would be staying with them, and then the kitchen, and where the boys would be staying.

“Akaashi! This is so exciting!” Bokuto yelled as he had his arm around Kuroo’s shoulders, and pulling on Tsukki’s shirt.

“Why don’t you love me! I helped raise you!” He said and Kurro helped pull the tall blond first year into a group hug.

“Yama help me!” He said and Tadashi laughed with Kenma. Both of the shorter boys just smiled and walked away as if they saw nothing.

“Hey, thanks for this, I think it will be good for some of the other guys.” Akaashi said as he walked over to Daichi, shaking his hand.

“Yeah, we were lucky enough to have a seminal like this at the school, but we know that not everyone is, and we wanted to make sure that everyone was educated before we all graduated.” He said looking over to the rest of the new team talking to other members.

“Oi, is anyone else here?” Bokuto asked as he finally let go of Tsukishima. His hair was a mess and his face was red. He straightened his glasses and looked around for Yama.

“No, otherwise you would see them.” He said and walked off before they could capture him again.

“Washio!” Hinata and Lev called out when he finaly made his way off the bus, obviously having fallen asleep. He looked to the two first years and patted their heads as he grabbed his bag and had them show him where they would be staying. Apparetnly he was not a morning person.

“How do you survive school then?” Hinata asked, Tatsuki explained that he was excused from school in the morning do to a college class he took at night at the hospital, so he was used to staying up later for the class, and not having to wake up until later for school.

The boys all sat in the auditorium, where the sleeping bags were set up as they talked. Kenma showed some of the boys the new games he had, and the second years were all outside, talking about some plan of attack on the older boys. It was fun and no one had any problems for right now. It was another hour or so before Aobajosai arrived.

When the bus stopped Karasuno was once again lined up to greet them, some of the other boys from either team with them, the rest, opting to stay behind doing whatever it was they were doing.

The coaches were once again the first off, the bus, and then stood as the kids slowly got off. Matsukawa was the first off, greeting his fellow friends and then went to stand by their coaches. Yahaba and Kyotani were arguing as they got off the steps.

“No, seriously, I told you if you did it I would smack you so I don’t understand why you are upset!” Yahaba said and looked over and waved at Suga.

“But you didn’t have to do it on the back of my neck!” The other boy said he rubbed his neck and nodded his head towards Karasuno. The rest of the boys filled out one by one and finally all that was left was the captain.

“What’s up boys!” He said as he came walking down the steps of the bus, as if he was on a red carpet. Tanaka rolled his eyes as he went to go talk to Kyotani.

“Iwaizumi! Come on, let’s go put our bags up so we can get bags next to each other!” He said and picked up his bag and tugged on the other boys’ sleeves.

“Oi, relax ‘Kiawa!” he said and grabbed his bag sighing as they walked to put their bags up, all of the team following, as per ordered by their coach. Kuroo and Bokuto were fast on the scene, as if they sensed an opportunity for a joke.

“Ah, the great king, it’s so good to see you’re still forcing this poor boy to do your bidding!” Kuroo spoke up stoping Iwaizumi and smirking at him. There was nothing he could say that wouldn’t incriminate himself, so he let Oikawa handle himself.

“Hajime loves me! I’m not forcing him into anything!”

“Shut up Shitty-kawa!” He said yelling over his shoulder, which earned a snicker from the other boys.

“Oh, ho, trouble in the kingdom!” Bokuto said laughing as he went then and wrapped his arms around Hanamaki.

“Don’t drag me into that.” He said shaking his head as he moved his arm over his shoulder to be free from the other team’s captain.

“Hey, where are the showers? I feel like I smell like him just from sitting next to him on the bus ride here!” Yahaba spoke up as he pointed at Kyotani.

“Hey!” Kyotani spoke up trying to defend himself.

“Yeah, I’ll show you, we shouldstill have a little bit before Date Tech gets here.” Suga said smiling as he showed the boy where the showers were, was it a little weird? Yes, was he going to say anything about it? Nope.

The other boys had left the sleeping area to go and find other people to see and after a few moments it was just Oikawa and Iwaizumi left.

“Why didn’t you defend my honor?” The captain asked offended. He went over to the other boy and sighed.

“Because you’re not a princess in a storybook, you don’t need me to ‘defend your honor,’ plus they were talking to you, not me.” He said looking to Oikawa.

“But it would be nice if my boyfriend would defend me sometimes!” he said complaining.

“Sorry, but you know it’s better not to give into them.” He said stepping closer before leaning in a bit.

“Oikawa, Daichi wants to talk to yo-“ Hinata was cut off by the scene in front of him. Everyone knew that they were close, and everyone knew the rumors about them dating, but no one was ever able to figure out definitively if they were or not, but the kiss he was about to give the captain was clear.

“Oh, coming!” Oikawa said pulling away and smiling, following the small boy as if they weren’t in the middle of something. He sighed. He figured if there was any time for everyone they knew to find out it was this week. But still, the idea scared him.

“Don’t wait up Hajime!” Oikawa called over his shoulder as they left.

“Are you and Iwaizumi da-“ He got cut off again, this time by Toru pinning him against a wall, holding his shirt. If he wasn’t honestly a little scared he would be irritated for being cut off again.

“Iwaizumi doesn’t want anyone to know yet, so don’t tell anyone, got it?” He said looking at him, unblinking as he tilted his head.

“Gaw, you can be scary Oikawa!” He said and pushed him back, as Kageyama came around the corner.

“What’s going on?” He said coming over and looking between the two.

“Nothing.” Hinata said and grabbed Kageyama’s arm and pulled him along.

“Race ya!” He yelled after he already started back.

“That’s not fair!” Tobio yelled after him as he started running also. Oikawa laughed as he watched the boys leave. His smile quickly faded though when he pulled his phone out and texted Hajime that he had spoken to Hinata. He didn’t want him to be upset.

“Daichi-san!” He yelled when he got to the main room, the other two captains that were there so far also looked over.

“Eeee, Bokuto stop looking over your shoulder, it’s bad enough you’re so much like an owl! It’s creepy! Creepy-san!” He said and walked over.

The captains were having a meeting before the other team got there, just so they knew what the general run down was, and an understanding of how things were going to work once the final team got there so they could answer any questions their members had.

Finally, a little while after the meeting was over the bus for Date Tech could be heard and they all went outside to greet the last team.

Most of the first and second years could barely contain themselves they were so excited for everyone to be together again. Slowly they all got off the bus and Nametsu stood next to their Coach and looked to the boys who had lined up, and they all bowed together.

“Thank you for having us.” The group said in unison. Coach Oiwake then directed everyone to get their bags from the bottom of the bus and follow Nametsu to put their things up.

“Aone!” Hinata yelled and bounded over next to the group and walked with them, letting the coaches talk while the rest of the kids went back to whatever they were doing before.

After everyone was there and the bags were put up There were a few whistle blows that could be heard, and then there was another from another position. And again. All of the boys made their way to the center of the noise, some went straight to the gym, and others were greeted by Yachi who stood with the whistle in her hand and a smile on her face. It faded suddenly when she realized how tall everyone was.

“Uhm, everyone needs to go to the gym please.” She said, suddenly not as confident.

“Yes Ma’am!” Kindaichi spoke up and nodded to her smiling. He was then elbowed by Hinata who glared at him and mumbled something to him that she couldn’t hear.

“That whistle is very cute, ya know.” Sasaya said smirking at her, she didn’t know what to do so she blew it again, in his face this time. She was red as she did.

“Hey! Leave the poor thing alone!” Kuroo said as he walked past the introduction.

“Are you okay?” He asked, but something about his height, or probably his hair, but certainly not his face at all, scared her more and she squealed and ran off in front of him. All of the boys were headed towards the gym anyway, so she didn’t need to either.

When everyone got to the gym Kiyoko and Takeda were on stage, with the other three managers in front of the stage near them. Yachi made her way to the front to stand up on stage as well.

“If the Karasuno team could please come up to the front.” Takeda said into the microphone. Tanaka and Noya could be heard from the back where they had been, hollering about representing Karasuno. The other boys made their way quickly, or as fast as usual in Tsukishima’s case.

“Thank you all for coming. You have all seen the sleeping arrangements, some of you have seen the showers, and all of you know where the gym is. If you have any questions about where anything can be found, please find myself, or someone you see up here.” Takeda started, reading off of notecards. Honestly, this many teenage boys scared him a bit.

“You will sleep with your team, but during the days’ activities you will be in different groups to get used to working with people that aren’t your teammates. Every group will have either a captain or another one of our third years in it for safety.” He took a breath.

“In just a moment we will break into those groups and be seated at one of the groups of chairs some of you are already seated at. We ask that you respect the school grounds and throw any trash you have away in any of the trash cans you see marked around the campus. Breakfast will be at 9, lunch at 2 and dinner at 8, those will be eaten in the cafeteria only, for safety reasons. Coaches will be around at all times, so this is not a free for all, but other than that we encourage you to have fun and get to know one another more than you might already. I’m going to hand it over to the managers who have made this retreat possible to go over a few other things.” He said clapping for the girls, and the entire room erupted in claps and hollers. Kiyoko came to the microphone and put her hand up, to silence the room, and in three seconds you could have heard a pin drop.

“This retreat will be focused on gender, sexuality, and general safety for yourself, and others. The schedule is as followed. Today will be focused on getting to know each other exercises. Tomorrow will be different sexualities, including Bisexual, Pansexual, Lesbian and Asexual. The third day will be about different genders, including Transgender, and Genderfluid. The fourth day will be about abuse in different ways, and STD awareness and general safety. The fifth day will be more of a free day, but we will be decorating cupcakes for local homeless shelters that focus on helping homeless youth and other LGBT people. Day six will be a photoshoot we will do, to make and sell on the final day and all proceeds will go to different LGBT organizations around the city. Finally, on the last day we will be holding a charity tournament, where you will compete with your group members.” She looked up and felt every single pair of eyes on her and she sighed to herself, away from the microphone. She said a quick thank you and took a step back. Once again, the room went wild. They were clapping and crying in some cases. Things could be heard from all different directions.

“Kiyoko-san said so much!” “She said sex!” “She said Lesbian, oh my god!” “I’m in love!”

She hung her head and then motioned for Yachi to go up when she had had enough of the nonsense.

There was another round of applause before she cleared her throat. She wasn’t confident enough to put her hand up, but she wanted it quieter so she could speak.

“After each day, we will hold another question and answer session, to go over whatever topics you may want some more discussion about, or any questions you have in general, that you don’t want to ask aloud. We will have an ask box in both bathrooms, so you do not have to feel uncomfortable sliding a question in. Please be respectful of the boxes, and the people that are asking them, or answering them. This retreat is about learning to have more respect, care, and awareness for those that might be struggling.” She said and pulled out a different note card.

“The groups are as followed, if each Karasuno team member or members would go to a different circle of chairs now please.” She said and waited for people to move, standing up, so they weren’t in the seats, and everyone went to their chairs, they knew the groups so they already knew who was grouped with who.

“When you hear your name please go to that group of chairs. The first group is going to be run by Daichi. Daichi please raise your hand. Would So Inuoka, Lev Haiba, Takahiro Hanamaki, Haruki Komi and Kanji Koganegawa please join him.” She paused to let them move a bit.

“Next is Suga’s group. Suga please, thank you. If Shohei Fukunaga, Shigeru Yahaba, Kentaru Kyotani, Wataru Onaga, and Yutaka Obara please join him.

Next is Hinata and Kageyama’s group. Please join, Yuki Shibayama, Shinji Watari, Kotaro Bokuto, Takanobu Aone, and Kosuke Sakunami.” She paused looking at how many boys there still were and she sagged her shoulders a bit before picking them back up.

“Tsukishima and Yamaguchi will be leading the next group, if I could have Tetsuro Kuroo, and Kenma Kozume, Yutaro Kindaichi, Tatsuki Washio, and Yasushi Kamasaki for that one please.

Then we have Narita and Kinoshita leading group five. They have Morisuke Yaku, Toru Oikawa, and Hajime Iwaizumi, Yamato Sarukui, and Takehito Sasaya.

Asahi and Noya will lead the next group. They will have Nobuyuki Kai, Issie Matsukawa, Keiji Akaashi, and and Kenji Futakuchi.

And out last group will be led by Tanaka and Ennoshita and the remaining few will join them, that includes Taketora Yamamoto, Akira Kunimi, Akinori Konoha, Kaname Moniwa, and Taro Onagawa.” She said and took a deep breath, feeling better now that they were all organized into smaller groups.

“If I have not called your name please let me know, but it looks like everyone has a group.” She said and smiled. She stood back and let Takade take over once again.

“Now that everyone has their group we are going to break and do some individual group activites. Like I said, dinner will be at 8, please have fun, and let us know if you need any help.” He said and turned off the mic. Everyone clapped and turned to their individual groups.

“Alright everybody! We all know each other’s names so there’s not really a reason for us to say our names!” Hinata said and laughed.

“Sense we don’t need to do that, why don’t we go around saying our position.” Yamaguchi spoke to his own group.

“That’s right, our managers put all of this together, aren’t they awesome!” Tanaka spoke loudly and everyone agreed, Ennoshita guided them back on track and suggested that they all said their year.

“Well I’m Kinoshita and I love pickled ginger!” He said with a big smile passing the volleyball they had been holding to Narita who went on to say his name and his favorite food.

“We all know each other pretty well, and we will only get closer over the next week, so let’s just go straight to the activities! One of them is super cool, we get to make a giant circle with just us! No chairs!” Noya said jumping up and showing the other guys how they would arrange themselves to form the ‘circle of trust’ as he called it.

“You all know me, I am the the Karasuno captain, and you are always welcome to come to me if you have any questions, I am most afaid of wig’s…it’s complicated…” He said and looked to Komi who sat to his right to continue with a little about himself.

“I’m so excited for the retreat! I think I am looking forward to the cupcakes the most! I’ve personally had Yachi’s cupcakes before and they are delicious!” He said smiling asking the rest of the boys what they were most excited for.

The entire gym was loud once more, but in a more organized manor. The groups laughed and joked around with each other, learning bits about everyone, who hated frogs, who laughed at the dirty jokes, which one of them liked coffee, and how they liked it, and who was looking forward to the photoshoot, and who wasn’t. Yachi and Kiyoko lead the other managers to the kitchen where they had their own small group.

“Shimizu!” Michimiya called as she walked up into the kitchen as well.

“Ah!” The manger was excited to see her and hugged her.

“Now that we’re all here we’re going to have our own group as well. We want all of you to be able to go to any activites you want, it’s for us as much as them, but we are also going to be preparing the food. Dinner will be hot, but the rest will be cold meals. Breakfast will be mik, cereal, different bars, fruit, and things like that, lunch will be sandwiches, chips, and either fruits or vegetables. Yachi has the menu for dinner though.” She said turning to the smaller blonde girl who was much more comfortable now.

“Tonight, is easy, sense it’s our first night, it’s going to be macaroni pasta with cheese sauce and green beans. It’s my favorite.” She admitted and they all laughed, agreeing with her.

“Shall we get started?” Suzumeda spoke up smiling at them.

“Yes!” Kiyoko said and they all headed back to begin cutting, cleaning, and boiling.

By seven thirty all the groups had done all of their activities and were doing different things. Hinata and Kageyama were holding a practice match against Narita and Kinoshita’s group, while Daichi and Suga had started a small tour around the school and campus, because most of their groups didn’t know where things were or wanted to walk around a bit. Tsukki and Yama had let their group go, however most of the group was still around, hanging out in the courtyard, under some trees as they played games or listened to music in peace. Noya was enjoying his role as leader and had suggested his team go see if the girls needed any help preparing for dinner.

They didn’t.

After a while there was another few whistle blows and then everyone checked the time, or noticed the wonderful smell and found their way to the cafeteria. They were in awe when they saw what all the girls had prepared.

“Please enjoy!” Yachi said and bowed to them as she went back to her position behind the counter as she handed out plates of macaroni. The boys then made their way to the green beans, and each got a premade roll. Grabbing a water bottle as they sat down they broke apart from the groups a bit, but generally everyone just ate with everyone. There was comments being thrown across the room with rolls or bottles. Everyone seemed content and happy. After they were all fed, they made sure to serve the Coaches and then they ate themselves as their own small table separate from anyone else. After quite a few rounds of seconds they all seemed tired and slowly walked back to the gym for their evening meeting. The girls started cleaning up and prepped the kitchen for breakfast.

Narita and Kino hopped up on stage while they talked to a few other people as everyone moseyed in as they pleased. Finally, once it seemed that everyone was there they hopped up and clicked the microphone on.

“Do we have everyone here?” Kino asked and looked around, getting some nods, some middle fingers, and some verbal responses that he couldn’t make out.

“Thanks, anyway, sense it’s the first day we didn’t bother checking the boxes tonight, but please put some in them! We want to answer your questions! Sense we don’t have any real questions, does anyone have anything they need to know now?”

Narita then took the microphone and pointed at Koganegawa who had his hand raised.

“Is Yachi single?” There was a big wave of laughs.

“You’ll have to clear that through Kiyoko, Daichi, Hinata, Kuroo apparently,” He paused pointing at the Nekoma captain, who had proved to be a protector of the small girl, “And uh, Enno.” He said smirking. Yachi wasn’t there so there wasn’t any harm. More laughs.

“Are you single?” Someone called from the middle somewhere, probably ducking down to avoid being seen.

“That depends on your position.” Narita said with a smirk and suddenly everyone was “ooo-ing” and laughing.

Kinoshita took the mic back and gave his best friend a look of surprise.

“You guys already have him acting wild. This should be interesting.”

They went on a little while longer just having one giant conversation with the two second years monitoring and leading.

“Alright it’s almost nine thirty, so please pick up any trash you see, and have a good night. Coaches have said that we are all to be inside a building by ten, and inside the school by eleven.” Kino said and Narita took the mic following up.

“That means you can stay outside ‘till ten, and in the gym ‘till eleven, but you have to be in sleeping quarters or the bathroom, or the hall outside the sleeping room after that. You don’t have to go to bed, but be respectful.” He said and they turned the microphone off, setting it back in place and jumping off the stage as they went back to who they were talking to before.

A few boys headed to the school to take showers or start winding down, others, mostly first years were setting up the net, to actually play a game or two, and a handful went outside to joke around some more.

Takeda had made rounds at ten, closing down some kids playing chicken by the basketball court, and warned them not to play again. He did another at ten thirty, telling the boys to take the net down and prepare to go to the school building. By eleven everyone was either in the shower, which was its own adventure, or in their sleeping rooms. A few were still sitting up talking in the halls. Mostly the kids that were close but didn’t get to see each other a lot.

By midnight almost everyone was asleep. You could hear snoring from quite a few of the boys, the rustling of rolling over, and in more than one spot there was a sleeping bag being shared, clearly having pulled the two together and having moved to one once lights were out.

The soft glow of Kenma’s game, and Washio’s computer gave enough light to those who needed to get up to go to the bathroom. Every once in a while, someone would say something and you could hear a small laugh from a few of the boys close by. Daichi and Suga sat in the hall, checking on the boys, as they nodded and texted Takeda that everyone was finally asleep. They went to their own sleeping bags and, like a few others, ended up sharing one after all.

The girls slept in another room, they had all been asleep by eleven thirty, seeing as they had to get up at 7:30 to prepare for breakfast, and get a head start on the rest of the day.

The coaches were passed out on their cots by two, and the campus was quiet for the first time that day finally. Even asleep the energy from so many excited boys could be felt from space. It was the best excitement of a tournament, without the nervousness of failure. It was a safe space for all, a warm bed for others, and a chance to finally feel wanted for many of them. It was going to be a long, wonderful week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhhhhhhh guys, okay, so this is by far the longest chapter so far, I know the other chapters following are bound to be just as long or longer seeing as they are going to actually go over different topics and address some serious issues. I do plan on using actual statistics, like I did before and I’ll credit them like I did also. I can’t tell you how much work goes into writing this. I have six different browser tabs open all on different pages to keep track of players, grades, and information about them all. That doesn’t include the SPREAD SHEET I have for this bunch. Uhm, I know it may seem kind of chaotic, I tried really hard to make it as understand able as I could considering I had around 50+ characters all with different personalities, story lines, backgrounds, and they all wanted to talk! Uhm, what else, oh I’m sure you can tell I’m from the south because I said mosey. Lol. If I honestly did leave anyone out let me know, I know I purposefully left out one of the first years from Date Tech I believe, because it’s unrealistic to think that all of the boys from all of the teams wouldn’t already have plans for their break. In fact, I’m going to use that later to explain why some other schools aren’t there. Anyway, uhm, what do you guys think? Is it okay? Let me know in the comments please, it really does motivate me, and help me get the energy to write the next bit, especially now that the chapters are so complex and long, I’ll need all the help I can get! You can always follow me on tumblr @iwantyourbloodonmylips and I’ll see you guys “tomorrow” !!!!!!


	13. Starting Today: You are an Ace! Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first part of the second day the retreat! Including presentations by Kiyoko and Ennoshita!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My puns are the best...

At seven thirty am the managers were up and making their way to the bathrooms to wash up and get their day started. Getting dressed, pulling their hair back, checking their phones, responding to any messages they had gotten from their friends or family.

When they were already in the kitchen, setting the breakfast up, and getting the chairs ready for the first meal of the day the boys started to stir.

Hinata was the first one to actually get out of bed, but he stopped to talk to Akaashi who was awake and just on his phone. Bokuto was asleep next to him, curled up, one arm around his friend.

“How does he sleep at home?” He asked tilting his head a bit as if he was a dog.

“He has a big body pillow.” He replied without looking away from his phone. He didn’t want to interact with people yet so he didn’t bother with Hinata.

The boy just shrugged and went on to shower, followed soon after by Ennoshita, dragging Tanaka along with him, and Kai. Hinata was happy when more people started to wake up because he was excited for the day to start. He wanted to spend more time with his friends, but he was also anxiously awaiting the presentations they had today.

Today was the first day they were going to actually be having meetings, and hopefully questions at the end of the day, and it was clear that everyone was a little nervous. Boys from the other schools didn’t know what to expect, or how it would go down. Everyone that was performing today was on edge. Today’s topic was posted, but only those who were performing, or their partner knew about it. So many of the boys were choosing today, only partially by themselves to come out.

Asahi was still asleep when Noya woke up and had gone to the bathroom across the school to changed. He joked that it smelled better than the one they were all using, which was true. The smaller one jumped on his boyfriend and smiled big when his leg landed partially on Suga as well.

“You need to get up too! We all do! Come on Suga, aren’t you supposed to be the mom here?” He laughed and pulled Asahi half way out of his makeshift bed before he finally groaned awake. Such a hard sleeper that one was.

Suga of course woke up and rubbed his face, seemingly already to handle Noya.

“Yes, but physically is not the way to wake everyone up.” He said and gently rubbed Daichi’s arm saying his name, and then he leaned in to whisper something in his ear. Whatever it was the captain was sitting up straight in a few seconds. Suga laughed and got up lazily making his way to the bathroom, waking the rest of his team up as he went.

Yamaguchi smiled when he got up, saying ‘good morning’ to everyone, and much to his amazement most people said it back. Tsukki usually just grunted at him, or gave his signature glare. Today was no different.

With everyone waking up it was hard to ignore it. They were all friends anyway, so as soon as one boy was forced to wake from his slumber, he wanted his friend to join him in reality as well. It was a sight to be seen.

“Hey, chief who’s presenting today anyway?” Kurro said as he pulled his sleeping shirt off and grabbed a new one from his bag. He took a second one out and handed it to Kenma who had his arms out reached, expecting it. He in turn got his own bag out and pulled out a second shirt to wear, and a pair of boxers for the older boy. It was like they were married.

Daichi couldn’t help but smile at them.

“We’ll know when we get there won’t we buddy.” He said noting the fighting words he had used.

“Oh, alright, gotcha’, pal.” He said smirking as he raised an eyebrow.

“No problem son.”

“Right back at you fuck-face.” Kurro said, mumbling as he turned to run.

“Oi, come back here you little shit, I heard that!” Daichi yelled and chased after him, after he rounded the corner and almost slipped in his socks he sighed, turning to Suga and Kenma who were both watching with questioning eyes.

“Why do I let him get to me?” He asked as if he was honestly expecting Suga to know and tell him. He just shook his head and moved to walk them both to the showers.

“Hey Aone! How did you sleep?” Hinata asked jumping over to say hi to his friend before breakfast.

“It was alright, tonight will be better because I’ll be used to it.” He said and they walked around outside to get some air.

“Hey, wait for me!” Kageyama called after them and he raced up and rolled his eyes at his friend. He was carrying a volleyball.

“You guys want to toss before we eat?” He asked and they agreed.

By the time they rang the bell for breakfast there were still about four people asleep. But the bell, and promise of food was enough to wake those who were either too stubborn to get up, or too sleep deprived.

“Good morning!” The girls said in unison when they opened the doors to the cafeteria. They had made up eggs and had heated up a bunch of ham. There was juice and water and milk in the drink carrier of course, but on the line, was scrambled eggs, soft boiled, hard boiled, and the ham pieces.

The boys were so happy to see the food, rushing to get in line first, Bokuto was actually first, despite everyone’s valiant attempts. Akashi walked up next to him, and took his plate. It was just them. Everyone went along with it. The girls served them the food, then the coaches who came over and sat with the boys for a little bit before going and starting their days off early. The girls then served seconds and thirds in some cases, and then ate themselves.

“It was delicious, thank you.” Ennoshita said bowing to Yachi and Namestu. Yachi blushed and bowed back.

“Really, it’s okay, you’re going to need it, performing today.” She said before she covered her mouth and turned even more red, her ghost a bright crimson color.

“Oh, so you are performing today huh? Interesting…” Oikawa said, who up until now had been fairly quiet. Everyone had rather hoped he would have stayed like that, but looks like the devil was awake, and he was going to make this day productive.

“Yes I am. I’m not ashamed about it.” He said turning and then putting an arm on the younger girl’s shoulder.

“I’m not, really, it’s okay. Thank you so much. I hope you will be able to see it?” He asked moving his arm away suddenly realizing he was still touching her arm.

While they talked some more about scheduling Michimiya burst through the doorway and went over to the girls.

“Sorry I was late!” She said bowing the other strangers and then looking to Kiyoko who nodded and smiled at her.

“Woah! Hello, and your name would be?” Kamasaki said walking over and smiling at the new girl in the crowd.

“I’m Michimiya, I’m here to help out today.” She said and then turned back to the girls and started talking again. Kamasaki stood there unsure of what just happened. He turned back around, dumbfounded, to a table full of boys who just burst out laughing.

“Alright guys if we could have everyone come to the gym now to start a morning meeting and get into the presentations!” Kinoshita yelled, with Narita clapping and showing which way to go, as if they didn’t know where the gym was located. Both boys were prepared for the day.

The sea of teenagers made their way to the gymnasium where they all were separated into their groups but all facing the front of the stage. On there were four poster boards. The one that was open was a basic white poster board. On it was a flag of some sorts, with soft purples and pinks. It was the only poster that was open for the group to see so far, so it was the first presentation.

Kinoshita was the first to speak up.

“Alright, we have four presentations today, there will be three, then lunch, and then the last one. We will have breaks in between the presentations for bathroom breaks and stretching and stuff like that, if you have any questions please wait until the speaker asks for them, or like we said yesterday the question boxes are in the bathrooms, if you don’t want to ask publicly.”

“Are there any questions already?” Narita asked looking around as he took a deep breath.

“Alright, one last thing, we’re going to quickly go over presentation etiquette. Please do not holler, yell, or make any loud sounds while the presentation is happening, and this is serious, we have all worked very hard for months now to make this happen, so please respect whoever is up here.” He said handing the microphone back to his friend.

“The first presentation, might seem a bit odd, considering we are mostly all guys, but it is a big problem with most men being completely uneducated about this topic, and we are hoping by doing this presentation that we can set some things straight. No pun intended.” He said smirking to himself. A few other kids snickered at that. He thought he was funny, that’s all that mattered really.

Both boys wrapped up their opening things and then took their seats on the side of the stage and one stuck his head behind the curtain and nodded. You could hear the gasps from everyone when the Karasuno’s beloved manager walked out on stage with the girl from earlier.

“Good morning.” Kiyoko said bowing softly. Michimiya smiled looking to her and then doing the same to the crowd of boys.

“This presentation is going to be regarding facts, myths, and general information about lesbians.” The manager spoke up and looked to her friend who jumped forward.

“Hi! Some of you know me, most of you don’t, my name is Michimiya, and I’m a lesbian!” She said smiling bright. Everyone’s eyes went wide for the most part, except for a few of the older boys.

“I’m here with Kiyoko today to help explain a little bit about lesbians, dispel some myths, and hopefully explain a little bit about the lesbian community throughout history, and in the LGBT community.” She said and looked to her friends sitting in the front row. Daichi gave her a thumb up and nodded his head. Reassuring as always, she smiled and continued.

“Lesbian technically means a homosexual woman. Meaning, a woman who likes other women. This, just like being gay is not a choice, and not something a girl can choose to just switch to when she is upset or angry with men. It is also different from bisexual, which will be covered next I believe.” She said looking to Kinoshita for conformation. He nodded his head and Kiyoko spoke up.

“In April 1952, the American Psychiatric Association declared homosexuality to be a mental disorder calling it a ‘sociopathic personality disturbance,’ She pointed to a bullet on her board. Moving along she went to another point.

“That would be considered a mental disorder for the next 21 years until a vote by the association would remove it for good from the list of disorders.”

“In September 1955,” Michi spoke up, “The first lesbian rights organization, ‘Daughters of Bilitis’ was formed. They would host secret parties to not be harassed, beaten, or threatened.”

“Many of you have heard of an even called Stonewall. This occurred on June 28th, 1969. Police raided a local gay club and riots, and protests broke out. It would become one of the most pivotal moments in LGBT history. While the club was illegally working without a license, the police were justified in raiding, but the recent target to LGBT clubs and others had people on edge.” The shorter girl walked as she talked, having memorized this information from all of the research she had done on it.

“While the workers of the club were being arrested, the police tried to arrest three drag queens and a lesbian who were at the club. That is when things got messy. Bottles were thrown and police were required to take shelter from the rioters until back up had arrived. The protests, demonstrations and riots lasted for days. It is still one of the most memorable acts of LGBT history.” She said looking over to Kiyoko to continue.

“A year later, there was a march, to celebrate the anniversary of the event, and it is considered the first gay pride parade.” She spoke softly.

“In 1974, history is made when two different gay women, Kathy Kozachenko, and Elaine Noble were elected to different branches of office in Michigan and Massachusetts.”

The girls go back and forth talking more about the history of the LGBT community, primarily focusing on the L, or other significant points in history. They talk about Harvey Milk, about “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” about other laws against homosexual marriage, and then again in favor of it. Finally, after a while they look at each other and sigh.

“Alright, that’s enough of a history lesson, now, onto some common myths about lesbians. Number one: Lesbians hate men.” Both girls laughed. Kiyoko just shook her head.

“I manage the boys’ volleyball team. I wouldn’t do that if I hated men, and if I’m not mistaken…” She dropped off and turned to her girlfriend.

“My best friend is a guy. You all know Daichi, he is my absolute best friend in the world, other than Kiyoko of course, and I’ve spent more time over at his house, sleeping over, hanging out, and generally just being with him, than I have anyone ever. We’ve been best friends for years. So…no we don’t hate men.” She said with a laugh and looked over to the board where she looked to the next myth for them to debunk.

“Lesbians want to be men. Hmm, no, myth!” Kiyoko said with a smile. “Sometimes lesbians will dress more masculine, and appear much more tomboyish than others, that does not mean she wants to be a man. It also goes along with the idea that one lesbian is the ‘man’ in the relationship. The whole point of lesbians is two women. No men.” She said as if it was obvious.

“The last myth we’ll talk about for now is…ah, that it’s easier to date women than men.” Michi said and rubbed her temples.

“Everyone in this room, gay, straight, bi, whatever has met a woman who was not happy. Most of the people in here have seen how women fight. What on earth makes people think that it is easier to date women, as a woman, than a man?” She looked to her friends, genuinely confused.

“Take the angriest woman, or fight between two women you have seen and put that in a relationship. It’s almost harder, which just goes to show that it isn’t a choice that you can make to just not have to deal with men, it’s genuinely something you are born with that is a definite part of who you are. It’s not easy, but love never is.” She said and looked to Kiyoko who blushed and looked down to her hands.

“So, any questions?” Yui asked smiling big, towards the audience. About thirty different hands shot up in the air.

“Oh boy.” Kiyoko said and looked around carefully to someone she hoped would have an actual question. It was hard because she didn’t know all of the other boys as much as her own team, but she looked over for someone who didn’t seem to be drooling, or otherwise generally excited by them talking about this.

“Yes, you. With the dark hair.” She said pointing to Akaashi. He stood up, over the other boys, and to be heard better.

“When did you know you were lesbian?” He asked, genuinely interested, and he supposed it would help the other, younger boys understand that Kiyoko was presenting because she too was gay.

“Ah, I knew when I was younger! Daichi and I would look at girls and I realized I liked more than he did!” Michimiya spoke up and smiled at her best friend.

Kiyoko then opened her mouth. She took a deep breath. Everyone was silent.

“I didn’t know until much later, it was actually Suga-san who mentioned that I might be gay, as a joke, and I went home and looked into it and realized I was.” She said looking to him, and then to her own teammate.

The one’s who did know just nodded, and the other half of the boys who hadn’t understood that both girls were in fact lesbian, just sat there stunned.

Daichi then raised his hand, acting as a buffer for an obviously uncomfortable Shimizu.

“Do either of you have a favorite Lesbian Idol, or someone you look up to?” He asked and smiled when he got a silent thank you.

“I know Kiyoko loves Higashi Koyuki, and I have always looked up to Torii Miyuki.” She said and then looked over to the boys sitting on the sideline. They looked genuinely interested instead of stunned, or confused like some other the other kids.

“Ah, well thank you so much guys! If anyone has any other questions, you can put them in the ask box, or talk to your group leader, the girls will also be back tonight for the ending meeting. Thank you both.” Narita said and the boys bowed, and started clapping, which soon turned into an entire room of clapping and cheering. The girls just laughed and exited, saying goodbye to some friends on the way out. They went back to the kitchen and sighed.

“How did it go?” Yukie asked smiling over to the couple who was huddled together smiling talking quietly.

“Great, what are we working on.” She said kissing her girlfriend’s hand before turning and putting on an apron, getting to work. Yui gladly grabbed one as well and started helping.

The boys were given a fifteen-minute break, most stayed in the gym, a few went to make a phone call, or respond to some messages they got during the presentation.

A few of the second years were getting a water, when Asahi came up.

“Hey Enno-kun, may I speak with you?” He asked and the younger boy told his friends he would meet them back inside.

“I just wanted to see if you were okay to go next.” The gentle giant said smiling as he rubbed his neck. If he was being honest, he was rather nervous, and was hoping the younger boy wouldn’t be.

“Yes. I don’t think I’m worried about talking about it, or coming out at all, I’m more worried that when it comes time for you to go that there will be confusion.” He said, honestly. He had been telling the truth earlier when he said he wasn’t ashamed to come out, but he was worried how it would affect Asahi’s presentation. It was that kindness and consideration that had the third years put him up for captain next year.

“Oh, I’ll be alright, I’ve dealt with people not understanding it versus bisexuality for a long time. I just want to make sure you are okay, if you need anything let me know.” He said and smiled waving bye as he went to find his boyfriend.

“No, I swear Ryu, I didn’t know either!” The ‘boyfriend’ himself could be heard from across the gym talking to Tanaka who seemed to be very excited for their manager.

“Hey Enno-san, what was that about?” Fukunaga asked as he wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand.

“Nothing, presentation stuff. We should probably head back in.” He said smiling and leading the small group back to their seats.

This time the stage was set up with a poster that was colored Blue, purple, and pink. The second years sat on the stage this time, but on the edges once again.

“Alright guys, now we have our second presentation for today. Everyone give it up for Enno-san!” He said and they clapped as he came up on stage and smiled rubbing the back of his neck.

‘Alright Enno, get it together. This is your chance to explain it. Breath. Now, begin.’ He thought as he started explaining that his presentation would be over Bisexuality, and that his board was colored the same as the Bi-Pride flag.

“Bisexual is the attraction to two genders. Yours and the one opposite to you. For me,” He spoke calmly, making Daichi quietly proud, “that means that I like guys, and girls.” He took a deep breath and looked to his friends from other schools, who were scattered around the gym. Some looked confused, some looked surprised, and a few just smiled, but he was sure that Noya’s smile counted as at least two, because it was so big.

“This is different from Pansexual which is the attraction to all genders, all things we’ll talk about later.” He said and looked to his presentation, and then back to the crowd.

“Uhm, there are over 1,500 animal species that show bisexual behavior, and have for years. The term bisexual was originally defined as having both sexes in one person, in 1824, it wasn’t for another century that it came to mean what we know of the word now.” He said and nodded looking, hoping he wasn’t losing the crowd.

“There is actually a famous Greek character, who is one of the most famous bisexuals in history. He was used as an argument back and forth between Hera and Zeus, and was then created into a bisexual…it’s more interesting than that, but that’s basically it.” He laughed to himself and then looked up noticing Narita giving him an amused look.

“There is actually a great controversy over whether or not bisexuality even exists at all.” He said moving across the stage because he needed to move around, he was getting nervous just standing there.

“Sigmund Freud, a famous psychologist, believed that everyone was bisexual, but he also believed that everyone was sexually attracted to their parents and some other crazy things.” He said moving his arms around, getting into the presentation.

“However, there are a lot of people, especially now a days who believe that it doesn’t exist at all, it is these people that are actually dangerous to the community and myself. It’s a common thought that people who are bisexual are just in a “phase” and refuse to acknowledge what someone says.” He said talking as he moved around.

“It is actualy very common within the LGBT community. This is the hardest part, because it is supposed to be a safe space and place for all of us to be, I mean,” He said looking out to the group, “There is a whole letter in the acronym for us!” He was back to his original place now, just pacing this time.

“While the entire month of June is Pride month, Bisexual Pride day is actually September 23rd.” He said smiling proudly at that fact.

“Now, some common misunderstandings and outright outrageous ideas about bisexuals…let’s see, what to start with, oh!” He caught himself and went to his board for the first time sense the beginning of his presentation.

“The idea that Bisexuals are more promiscuous, or more likely to cheat.” He said looking around the room. “It is a common belief that you should not date a bisexual because they are twice as likely to cheat. Let me say right now, that if someone is going to cheat, they are going to cheat no matter who they are with, who they like, or who they cheat on.” He said almost irritated, you could tell the subject was a sore one for him.

“I, personally, hold myself to a higher standard where I do not plan to ever cheat, I hate cheaters, and the idea that I’m more likely to cheat, simply because I like boys and girls is ridiculous. If I’m with someone it means I like them and only them.” He said nodding, having, finally, some sort of closer he obviously needed.

“The other main myth, I’ll be covering in my presentation is the idea that all bisexuals are automatically down for a threesome.” He said and sighed rubbing his face as he crouched down to explain this one, as if he was letting everyone in on a secret.

“People need to stop this. I’m no more for or against a three some as the next bisexual, gay, lesbian, or straight person. Just because bisexuals are attracted to both men and women doesn’t mean that they are interested in both at the same time. Why this is so common I don’t know, but I wish it wasn’t, because if anything, all it does is help the idea that bisexuals are more likely to cheat!” He said and then stood back up. Clapping his hands, he nodded motioning to the boys to say he was done.

“Uh, are there any questions for Ennoshita before we break for a bit?” Kinoshita said and looked out. Some people were ready for the break, others looked curious, like they might ask something, probably fighting with the idea of asking out loud. For their sake, he spoke up again.

“Remember that we have anonymous question boxes if anyone is wanting something answered but unsure about asking it out loud.” There were a few relived faces and Narita smiled at his friend. Kinoshita came over and pat Enno on the back.

“Good job man.” He said to his friend, before turning to the group.

“Okay, I think, this time we have a thirty-minute break, and there should be snacks in the back of the gym, courtesy of the girls.” He said and put the microphone back where it was.

The heard moved and half left for water or bathrooms, and the other half headed towards the back for food.

“Woah, dorayaki, my favorite!” Bokuto could be heard saying, while handing Akaashi one. The first years for the most part were eating the snacks while talking in a big group.

“I didn’t know Enno-san was bisexual.” Hinata said looking to Kageyama who looked back to him shrugging, mouth full.

“I don’t think it’s as easy to tell with bisexual people, as it is with gay.” Inuoka spoke up and took a bite.

“I mean, I think that’s kind of up to the person, because personally I could have called it, I have a great sense about those things.” Sakunami spoke up and smiled looking around the group.

“Really now, so you knew I was bisexual?” Inuoka said, which made the other boy, along with Hinata freeze and stare at him. He laughed and Yamaguchi just smiled and shook his head.

“Tsukki!” He said calling the taller boy over, he had gone to get his water bottle, handing it to his friend to have a drink from.

“Indirect kiss!” Sarukui yelled and some of the third years that were passing by laughed. Tsukki just rolled his eyes and refused to give in to the comments. Tadashi was grateful. The other first years had started talking about something else but Tsukki was still trying to say hello when Oikawa came over and drapped his arm around his kouhai.

“Aw, don’t be like that Tsukishima, I’m sure Tadashi wouldn’t mind kissing you, I don’t know how, but I’m sure he would…to be nice of course.” He said laughing and Tsukki was about to push him away when Iwazumi came over first, grabbing the boy by his shirt and dragging him backwards.

“Sorry.” He said sternly before walking the third year off in a corner, scolding him like he would a child.

Tadashi saw Oikawa looking over, obviously annoyed, wanting to see if he caused any trouble. Some other people had seen it to so he decided to do something that was so unlike him that it surprised everyone.

He leaned over, wrapping his arms around the taller boy’s neck, pulling him down as he went and curved his head around and kissed his friend right on the lips. The talking quieted down until it was quiet and most of the mouths were handing open staring at the two first years. Everyone who knew Yamaguchi was wide eyed, wondering if they saw right. Tsukki was the first to move, putting his hands on the smaller boys’ side. They had done this a dozen times or so, but never in public, and never in front of any of their friends.

Kurro clapped and cheered, excited for his friend. The blond boy raised his middle finger at that and kept kissing his best friend. Finally, they pulled apart and just stayed close, foreheads touching. Oikawa could be heard complaining about it not being fair, and Kurro was still cheering on his younger brother.

“Tsukki-san kissed Yama-san! Kageyama did you see that?” He asked jumping up and down, tugging on the taller boys’ sleeve.

“Of course, I did, dumbass, we are both standing right in front of them.” He said turning walking off to get some water, or some air, or anything really, to not be exactly where he was. Hinata followed him, asking about why he was leaving after something so monumental.

Bokuto pulled Daichi by the sleeve and they both came running into the gym. Bokuto laughed as he pointed, proving to be right. The Karasuno captain just stared, he had been right. They did kiss. Suga had believed it already so he took his time, but Daichi just had to see for himself. Sure enough. He was a proud papa.

“Oh my god, you guys are adorable!” Noya said and snapped a picture, running off before Tsukki could smash his phone to show his boyfriend who was unintentionally hiding from everyone to avoid going next.

Aone walked over and looked at the two boys. He congratulated them and then walked off to get a snack.

Tadashi just smiled as he laughed leaning against the taller boy.

“I’m sorry I don’t know what came over me, I just…”

“Shh Yama.” Kei offered instead of his usual demand to shut up.

“What did I miss?” Kenma said walking with Lev into the gym to find Kurro. The older boy explained what happened and Lev cheered and high fived his captain and Kenma went over to congratulate his friends.

“Why don’t you defend my honor like that?” Yahaba asked fake pouting to his best friend. Kyotani’s eyes went wide and he started stuttering before he saw Yahaba laughing and he started chasing him around.

“You asshole, come back here!” He said chasing him outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys, I had to break day one into two pieces, I have to go do something, so I’m going to go ahead and post this, day one part one, hopefully the rest will be up tonight as well, if not tomorrow, but my plan is later tonight, sorry again for not posting for so long, I’m going to try to make up. I did a lot of work for this, including adding to my spreadsheet a whole lot of shit! I used real facts and websites and articles in this, because I want it to be educational for those who need it to be. Below are the links to what I used! Thank you, guys, so much for the support, I hope you like it! As always you can follow me on tumblr @iwantyourbloodonmylips or pintrest @abusemesoftly you are welcome to stalk me wherever and always comment, like, ask me stuff, all that goodness. Thanks guys! Stay safe!!! 
> 
> Lesbian facts: http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/19/us/lgbt-rights-milestones-fast-facts/index.html Stonewall facts: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-stonewall-riot Bisexual facts: http://www.hercampus.com/school/u-mass-amherst/bisexuality-101 and https://archives.sfweekly.com/exhibitionist/2013/01/07/11-fun-facts-you-didnt-know-about-bisexuals?page=3


	14. Starting Today: You are an Ace! Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Second day of Sexuality day! <3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for sticking with me!!! <3 It's been so hard recently omg, I'm about to start classes, and apply for my 3rd, and then later 4th job. Sooooo yeah, thanks guys!!!

 

The boys had had their break and were back in the gym and Asahi stood on the floor in front of the stage, talking with Noya who was sitting on the stage, and Kinoshita. Narita grabbed the microphone and brought it over to where they all were.

“Alright guys we’re going to go ahead and get started again okay? Everyone comfortable? Good. If not, I don’t care, deal with it. Alright, everyone knows Asahi, so let’s start the presentation!” He said and went to hand him the mic.

“Get off the stage!” Someone yelled back at Noya who stuck their tongue out at them. He sat proudly, there for moral support. How Azumane got this far in life by himself being as tall as he was surprised everyone. He was really like a giant teddy bear.

“Uhm, hi, can everyone see me?” He asked and everyone mumbled a response, a few actually saying yes.

“Good, okay, well, I’m going to be talking about Pansexuality. And I’ve never talked about it publically so, bear with me.” He said and rubbed the back of his neck.

“So, the prefix “pan” is actually Greek, and it means “all” or “every,” so, putting that with the word sexual, the definition is someone who is attracted to all genders.” He said moving to walk in a small circle in front of Nishinoya.

“Now I know what you’re thinking,” He said seeing a few hands go up in the air to ask questions.

“No this is not what Bisexuality is. Bisexuality, like Enno-kun said, is attraction to two genders. He likes guys, and girls. Pansexuality is attraction to all genders. Genders we will talk more about tomorrow, but briefly, it could mean, guys, girls, transgender people of any sex, non-binary people, and all sorts of people.” He said starting to get a little more confident. Noya smiled behind him watching as he grew visibly better.   

“The pansexual flag is three colors, pink, yellow, and blue. Which is why my board are those colors. Now, it’s hard to know when the term began its use, but google trends saw a major spike in the work in September 2007.” He said walking around.

“Like all sexualities, they can really only be defined for each person, by that person, for me, I don’t care about gender at all, and that’s the good thing about pansexuality, in my opinion, is that you don’t need to know the gender of someone, and neither do other people. It’s all very mysterious.” He laughed and Noya smirked as well and pat him on the back for the joke.

“Pansexuality was also a big step for genderless people everywhere because it offered them a sexuality that could be used without having to give away a gender.” He caught himself about to point at his boyfriend on the stage, but caught himself in time to remember that not everyone knew yet. He looked up to his poster board and nodded.

“Right, now some myths about pansexuals: uh, we are in fact not attracted to pots and pans. If I hear one person make that joke, you won’t like what happens. It is old, tired, and not really funny at all. Another myth,” He said taking a drink of his water.

“Is that because we like all genders, that we’ll sleep with anyone. Pansexuals can have types and people they don’t like just like everyone else here.” He said laughing as he motioned around to other people.

“Uhm, are there any questions I guess?” He asked rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. He looked around the room, a few people moving around, unsure when finally, from the side of the room came a hand. He lit up like he did when he hit a ball through an iron wall.

“Yes!”

Yaku stood up and looked around, telling himself he was looking to see who of his friends were nearby, but he only finally was able to speak after he saw Daichi’s group, a big smile from his kouhai, Lev’s silver hair shining over the groups.

“So if pansexuality is for all gender’s, why is bisexual still a thing? Why isn’t everyone who is bisexual just pansexual?” He said and then sat back down running his hand through his hair.

“That’s a good question, uhm, well, bisexual is when you are attracted to your gender, and the opposite, pansexual is your gender, the opposite, and any in between. It’s just a matter of preference I guess.” He said shrugging, turning to Ennoshita to see what he felt about the answer.

He looked to Narita then, who was saying something to Yaku, who was in his group, and got a nod in return.

“Alright, I think that is time, but if you have any other questions you are welcome to ask me personally, or ask in the boxes around campus, or later tonight at the closing meeting alright?” He said and gave the mic back to Kino as he and Noya went back to sit down, as the gymnasium applauded.

“Alright, we are going to break for a little bit before it’s time for lunch, and then we’ll have another break after lunch, and then we’ll be back for the next and final presentation for the day.” Kinoshita said as he put the microphone up and they went back to their group.

“You did great babe.” Noya said in his ear as he kissed right below it as they walked back up to their own group, Asahi blushing bright red.

“So, Azumane, why don’t you just say you’re gay? I mean, you’re dating a guy so just say you’re gay?” Kai said and both of the karasuno boys stilled.

“Uhm, well, because I’m not…” Asahi said and then corrected himself, worried he was going to screw this up.

“Gay I mean, I’m uh...pansexual. It doesn’t change based on who I’m dating, I’m always pansexual. Just like I’m always a volley player even now when I’m not playing.” He said and nodded being happy with his answer.

“Daichi do something!” Hinata’s voice came across the room then.

“Tsukki is hogging Yamaguchi! I want to play ball!” He said pouting. Kageyama stood behind him, honestly feeling the same. He didn’t understand hogging someone because the only person he would ever hog was the redhead in front of him. He didn’t know what that meant but he decided he didn’t like it.

Daichi laughed and came over to the first years sighing as he rubbed his face.

“Suga how do I explain this?” He asked as Kuroo walked by and leaned in next to Daichi as he spoke.

“They wann’ fuck.” He said and then ran off before Daichi could get him. Pulling Kenma along with him who was complaining about the running. At that moment Ennoshita opened the gym closet and smiled at the dozens of faces looking at him. Together they made the younger boys put the net up, and they, without coaches put together two teams, deciding that as soon as they got a point they would switch out a player so everyone could play.

Suddenly no one else was worrying about the couples that had snuck off, or the older kids who had chosen to go study, or the few students just sitting around on their phones.

“Hey, hey, hey! That doesn’t count! You can’t take Akashi, he has to be on my team!” Bokuto was yelling at Moniwa about this monumental disturbance to the universe. Somehow the world seemed to go on, however, and after half an hour the boys were being called for lunch, as they made their way to the cafeteria through the bathrooms to wash their hands, it was a blur of movement, but Narita checked the box that sat against the wall and sure enough, there were already a couple of pieces of paper in there. He bit his lip and decided to wait to read them. He wanted to be surprised.

As he and Tanaka followed by Noya and Asahi walked into the gym and again, the girls had set it up like a line for them to go through. It all smelled so good, the girls putting together spices and recipes from their own homes, to add them together and make the most delicious food the boys had ever tasted, surely.

Lining up the boys got their Fish, rice, and veggies, grabbed a milk and headed to their tables, sitting with more of a variety of people, not just their own teams. It was a wonderful sight really, seeing the boys working together, having fun, laughing, loosening up. Once everyone was served and had eaten the girls ate and then worked on cleaning up from lunch, putting the trash cans out so the boys could dump the rest, and then save their trays. They all said thank you, and left, some of them going back to the gym, Tsukki and Yama even joined in on the volleyball game for a bit, others just talking in small groups, some inside, commenting on the boys’ forms, or just joking around.

Finally, after a while Daichi and Oikawa led everyone to cleaning the gym up, and putting the chairs back in the groups as they were before. Once everyone was back in their seats, Tanaka took a deep breath and went upstairs and helped Narita pull his poster board up on display. He looked over to Noya who gave him a thumb up as he nodded and turned towards the group.

“Alright losers, listen up. I’m going to be talking about, a…uh, a sexuality and it’s very specific, and I don’t want any comments or questions at all. Understand? Good.” He said, no longer looking at the crowd, just walking around, talking, his nerves getting the better of him.

“Uhm, like you see my board is four colors, black, grey, white, and purple, these are the colors of the a…uh, the…” He was stumbling over his words, not wanting to say it. He was so nervous, he hadn’t actually looked up from his feet or his board sense he first started. Ennoshita sighed and quietly got up going over to the stage, everyone watched, and while they didn’t say anything, everyone was feeling bad and slightly uncomfortable because they sensed how uncomfortable Tanaka was.

“Ryu!” Enno stage whispered as he called his friend over.

“You need to take a deep breath and actually tell them what it is you’re talking about…okay? Everyone here is your friend. It will be okay.” He said trying to reassure him.

“But they’re not going to get it!” He said and rubbed his head, he had been worrying about this all week, last night most of all, and now here it was and he was messing it up. He was supposed to be confident in his sexuality, but the truth was, he struggled with it as much as he was worried other people would.

“They will, if you show them how to get it. Remember, it’s a learning process and that’s why we’re here. You are the last presentation of the day so it doesn’t matter how long it takes okay?” He said finally and went back to his seat as he watched his friend go back to the center of the stage.

“Sorry, uh, I’m a bit nervous I guess. Uh, I’m going to be talking about,” He took a deep breath and looked up at the boys, “asexuality.”

There was no loud gasp, there was no booing, no one passed out, or started yelling so he took that as a good sign, his worst fears didn’t happen. There were quite a few confused faces however, so he continued.

“The general definition of asexuality is not having sexual feelings or desires.” He said and looked to his board, to point where he had it on the middle.

“Now the biggest thing to remember about asexuality is that it is not a choice like celibacy, which is where people decide not to have sex. Being asexual is about not feeling the urge, or compulsion to have sex, or receive any pleasure from it.” He said and he saw more people start to go from confused to even more confused.

“All asexual people feel all sorts of things differently. Some people don’t want relationships, some people do. Lots of asexual people even notice attraction in people, like myself.” He took a break and rubbed his neck. It was the most unsure of himself he had ever been publicly.

“It’s all about actual sex. Some people even feel uh, arousal, but don’t care about doing anything about it, or about having someone else help, if you know what I mean, and some people don’t ever feel the urge at all.” He said and nodded.

“Uhm, I’ve always been this way? And lots of people have, however people who are sexual, and don’t feel the urge suddenly should see a doctor, as it might be medical. But, being asexual isn’t a medical condition!” He added in suddenly.

“There are lots of groups, and organizations about it, and that are there to help people who are worried, or unsure about being asexual, and they can help answer any questions people have, or dispel any myths that there are about being asexual.” He said and pointed to another side of his board to show people where those web sites were.

“Lots of ace’s feel worried about being broken or wrong because they don’t like sex, because of how many people say they should want it, or talk about it all the time.” He said looking back down, after having been so confident earlier he was reminded about the all the nights he spent confused and upset because he was worried he was broken as well.

“It’s very common.” He said and then shook his head.

“But, um, a lot of people think that asexual people can’t have sex. That isn’t true, lots of asexuals have sex, it doesn’t mean they ‘can’t’ have sex, just means they don’t want to, or have a desire to.” He explained.

“Another common misconception is that asexual people just need to get a good lay to feel better.” He shifted uncomfortably,

“I can’t explain how much this makes no sense…I can tell you right now that having sex when you don’t want to, won’t fix you wanting to have sex, at best it will encourage your feelings of being asexual, at worst if can result in a lawsuit.” He said sighing.

This was the worst part for him, having to defend himself, and asexuality through the myths and jokes.

“Some people think that asexuals are that way because of a trauma in their past of a sexual nature, and that’s not true. Now everyone has trauma, but not every asexual is ace because of something that happened when they were a kid. It’s very rude to assume this.” He said and decided to round it up.

“Now, I personally notice attraction, and have no problem having a relationship, in fact, I would love one, but I have no desire to have sex at all. It was a hard thing for me to realize, but now that I’ve found it I feel like I’ve found something that was missing from me. Like only now realizing what your name was. It wasn’t easy, and I struggled for a long time, and I still do, but I hope that doing this presentation today will help people understand more about it, and understand other people. Thank you.” He said bowing and going off stage and sitting down. He was finished, so why didn’t he feel more relived. He was still so nervous. He got up and excused himself to go back to the sleeping rooms and he sat on his bag and held his head in his hand.

“That was Tanaka on Asexuality. Again, if you have any questions, save them, or put them in the boxes, you know where they are. Thank you and we’ll meet back after dinner.” Kinoshita said and put the microphone away.

More people than to be expected didn’t actually care, they understood and had moved on. It was a little shocking that their friend that seemed so gung-ho about girls was asexual, but he had said he felt attraction, so it made sense to them. Those were the kids who went about setting up the net again, to get another game going.

“I don’t get it.” Kindachi spoke up to his group.

“How can he not like sex? That’s just weird.” He said shaking his head.

“It’s not his choice, he just doesn’t like it, just like you don’t like my sticking your head in the dirt.” Kamasaki answered and rolled his eyes.

“It’s really not that big of a deal, so he doesn’t like sex, so what?” He said and hoped he got it through his head, despite being positive he hadn’t.

Across the gym Bokuto had pulled Kuroo aside and left Akashi to talk to Kenma. They were comparing tosses when the boys came back, pulling their respective people with them, out to find other people. They were planning something. And it was going to be awesome.

“Iwa-chan!” Oikawa could be heard in the courtyard. Some of the boys had decided to give the net a break and play basketball, and pretty boy was had learned rather quickly that he was not as good at basketball as he was volleyball. If fact, he was terrible, and Iwazumi had benched him after he scored the third basket on their team.

Tsukishima laughed as he grabbed the ball away from Kyotani who grumbled and chased after it. After another score, the shorter boy groaned and the whole team sighed, some sitting down, others leaning over, apparently being beaten was hard work.

“Hey, where’s Yahaba, I thought you said he was great at basketball!” Yaku spoke up and took a drink of his waterbottle.

“I don’t know! But when I find him…” Kyotani trailed off and just walked to go find him. The other team members walked off too, calling forfeit on the game. They were about to go back into the gym when Kuroo ran by calling for Yaku and Iwazumi to follow him.

It wasn’t a moment later that Bokuto came and did the same thing, calling for Oikawa, Moniwa, and Aone. The rest of the boys just sat there and rolled their eyes. Whatever it was they would find out soon enough, and that they did. Another half hour later there was a war cry of sorts, and from the building emerged Kurro and Bokuto leading their own lines. They finished their uneven march and stopped walking. In their hands, each were water guns that were so advanced that they were probably used for cosplay. Some of the younger boys had smaller less advanced guns in their hands, smaller ones stuck into pockets. The older boys even had water balloons on their shirt in a row, as if they were ammo.

Suddenly everyone who was watching that wasn’t part of the teams stood up and looked between themselves. This was not going to be good, and they had to see it. Tsukki smirked and grabbed Yama’s hand, bringing him closer, but sitting them behind the bleachers.

“To keep us safe.” He said and smiled kissing his forehead as Yamaguchi squeaked and smiled at his boyfriend.

“Ready!” Kurro yelled out as he got into position.

“Go!” Bokuto yelled as some first years opened the gym doors and the third years set forward yelling as they ran inside. Water was flying everywhere, innocent victums were shot. Bystanders were hit. There was no man left alone. Daichi screamed when he was first hit, his shirt soaked through. Suga ran to his side and dropped to his knees turning to him.

“What can we do?” He asked dodging his own shots, missing Kuroo coming up beside them, and screamed dropping a water balloon on the silver haired setter.

“Nooooo!” By the time the water massacre was over everyone was soaked and the water guns were empty and there were no balloons left. Even a few of their own men were down, but Bokuto stood up straight and looked around and high fived Kuroo.

“Hey, hey, hey! We are the rulers of the retreat!” He cheered and they left, their guns over their shoulders, and walked to victory outside to get a drink.

Hinata and Kageyama came out of the gym first, chasing after then senpai.

“That was so cool!” They yelled and went over to their friends behind the bleachers, but left quickly after they realized they had interrupted something of a make out session. They were walking back to the dorms, when Hinata pulled his shirt off.

“Hey, dumbass, wait until we are in the showers to do that! No one wants to see you without a shirt.” Kageyama said, hiding his blush by ducking his head down and grabbing a towel.

“You really think I’m that ugly?” Hinata said pausing to look over at his friend. They were walking through the room to get to the bathroom when they knocked over a bag. Out came a few apples, and a cup of noodles, but it had something else inside, and a wrapper on top, tapped. A make shift container.

“Whose bag is this?” Tobio asked leaning down, looking into the bag. There was quite a few more containers, some from dinner last night, and some from lunch and breakfast today.

“I don’t know, but I didn’t know we could have snacks!” He said disappointed, grabbing an apple and taking a bite.

“Don’t be stupid, this isn’t snacks, someone is seriously keeping this food…this isn’t healthy.” He said putting it all back, making sure to check who came back over to it later that night.

“Let’s just go get washed up.” He said and they talked about what they wanted for dinner and how crazy both of their requests were.

Dinner was an hour later, and served like all the rest, this time the trays held bowls with ramen in it. Eggs and other toppings were served on the side for those who wanted them, along with a piece of bread for each bowl. It was very successful, and the girls were happy how easy it had been to prepare.

“Kuroo-senpai, where did you even get water guns?” Kunimi asked after everyone was putting their trays up to head back to the gym for practice before the evening discussion.

“I brought them of course! It was necessary, and I’m so glad I brought them.” He said winking at Daichi who mumbled something under his breath to Suga who just laughed quietly at the comment.

“Why don’t you think of cool things like that Kawa-san?” Iwazumi asked listening in on the conversation. He was rewarded with a shocked expression and a whine.

“I try! But you always say no!”

“Oh yeah, that’s why. Good.” He said and smiled. It wasn’t that hard to see that they balanced each other out quite well.

The large crowd moved and made their way to the gym where the captains got together and led a group practice. The setters threw balls, there were spikes, feigns, and back and forth hits. Some of the boys from the other teams were helping Yama practice a floating serve, and the liberoes were practicing different dives and comparing stretches they had learned. Time flew by, and after a while Daichi blew a whistle he had borrowed from Coach Ukai.

“Let’s get it all put up and get ready for the meeting tonight.” He called out and sent Kinoshita and Narita out to get the questions from the boxes while everyone else cleaned up the gym. After twenty minutes they were seated, and the boys sat on the edge of the stage, questions and mic in hand.

“Alright, today seemed to go by very well, and we actually got some questions in the box today so we are excited to get started, after they’re finished we will open the floor up to any other questions that you don’t mind asking publicly.” Narita said and took the first card reading it first and then nodding as he started.

“The first question is ‘how do I know if I’m bisexual?’ uh, that’s a good question, Kino?” He said passing the microphone over to his friend.

“Well, I’ll ask Ennoshita in a moment, I’m actually also bisexual though, in case there were people who didn’t know, I personally think it’s about asking yourself if you like guys and girls, or, your gender people, and opposite gender people?” He asked struggling a bit before motioning for Enno to stand up.

“Uh, I think that’s really good advice, just you have to figure out if you are attracted to everyone, or just a set of people.” He said looking around to everyone, unsure of who asked, wishing he was able to know. He sat back down and turned to watch the other boys.

“Good talk, good talk, alright, next question, is…’Are you still bisexual if you’ve never done anything with both sexes?’ I assume you mean, either sexes? But I mean, is everyone else still straight if they’ve never touched a girl, because let’s be honest I feel like more than half of us have never had sex.” He laughed and parts of the room laughed along, a few protested, a few turned bright red.

Narita spoke up, the next question was someone asking if they were bisexual or pansexual. They talked about the same thing they had before, bringing in Ennoshita, and Asahi to comment, and go back and forth, even bringing in Oikawa, who brought up a few good points about it depending on their gender as well. The conversation went on for a while, with a few jokes tossed in there, but at the end they all sat back down and they asked for any other questions.

“I have one.” Sasaya said as he stood up.

“I think I understand the whole concept of being asexual, but can you still have relationships? Like, can you have a relationship if you are asexual?” He said confused, but proud to speak up about it. He’d always been one to speak up when he didn’t know, and do his best to learn.

Tanaka stood up and finished up saying something to Yamamoto before he actually turned to the Date Tech student.

“I mean, it all depends, I personally can, I am what I call panromantic, which is like being pansexual, but for romantic feelings, seeing as I don’t like sex, if that makes sense.” He said rubbing the back of his neck.

“I don’t know, Sasa-san, can you still have a relationship with a face like yours?” Moniwa spoke up and made everyone laugh, including Sasaya. He just went along and realized how silly he had sounded. He was more educated now, and understood it better though, so he was happy he asked.

After that the boys wound up the meeting, and reminded everyone to clean up their mess, and to clean up after themselves in the shower as well, a problem they already had on the second day.

“Don’t lean on me Tani!” Yahaba yelled after he had gone over and sat next to his friend. They had all been talking, but Yahaba was getting tired and wanted to go lay down. He was wanting to store up on sleep, even though he knew that that wasn’t possible.

“God, you are an asshole when you are tired, fine, let’s go.” Kyotani spoke up and said goodbye to their other friends as they walked back to their bags. It hadn’t occurred to either of them that he was allowed to stay up if Yahaba went to sleep. Everyone went to sleep in two’s, and not all of them were couples. Hinata and Kageyama were both headed to bed as well.

Suga was talking with Kenma about the raid earlier, and a bunch of the boys had gotten some volleyball and were playing some sort of game where they had to keep hitting the ball, and whoever dropped it had to do some sort of dare.

Over all it had been a very successful day, and there didn’t seem to be any massive arguments, and it had gone over rather smoothly other than the few hiccups named Kuroo and Bokuto. Speaking of who, was nowhere to be seen. Akaashi was playing the game, laughing at some of the first years struggling to keep up with the powerful hits of the older boys.

“Akaa-san, where is Kotaro?” Suga called over and he made his leave from the game, letting someone else take his place. He jogged over to where he and Kenma, and now Yaku were also standing. Lev was on his way over with two cups of tea he had made for his senpai and himself, upon Yaku’s request.

“He should be calling his mom right about now, that or mine, but he should make an appearance before he falls asleep, he can’t sleep without someone there anyway, so he’s awake somewhere.” He shrugged and elbowed his friend to look at the first year coming over with the cups. It was a miracle he hadn’t spilled any of the hot liquid.

“Here you go senpai!” He said, still so loud with such a calming drink in his hands. Everyone was amused, other than Yaku who seemed at peace. It was honestly sweet how much he had taken to the first year.

“So, you guys sleep together?” Kenma then asked looking back to Akaashi, who just laughed and shrugged.

“It’s me or a pillow.” He said as if it was a tossup he often had to deal with. No one was sure if the two were dating, or just really close, because all of them would be dead before they admitted that they had “cuddled” with their best friend. Akaashi was just open about it, he was open about everything that he wanted people to know about though. Bokuto wasn’t usually like that, but no one could tell if they were together, and it was driving the silver haired setter crazy.

“So-“ He was cut off when the owl himself came running in the door, waving his phone around.

“Kei! Mom wants to say hi to you!” He said, handing over the phone and saying hi to the guys before he went and jumped right in the middle of the game, messing Inuoka up, he groaned and went off to do his dare. Bokuto was not bothered by this one bit. In fact, he was enjoying it quite a lot.

Akaashi walked off to talk to one of their mothers, and Suga was made to wait another day to find out the truth. He called it a night and said goodbye to the guys and told Daichi he was going to the bath to get ready for bed, and captain said he’d be in there in a while. Suga smiled as he walked to grab his clothes to change when he knocked over a bag.

“Damn bag, it’s useless I swear, sorry Suga-san.” Yahaba said and smiled moving his bag to the other side, so it could lean against a wall. Suga just smiled and went about his night.

After a while the rest of the teams called it a night and headed into the beds and they all fell asleep pretty easily. The soft noise of snores, sleeping bags rolling around, the occasional mumble, and the tapping of different phones or games was the white noise that anyone that was still up needed to fall fast asleep. Tomorrow held bigger and better things, and they all slept sound knowing it was going to be even better than today had been, hopefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for putting up with me guys, seriously, thank you so much to those of you that comment, kudos, or keep up with the story, it means so much, and I honestly am motivated by you guys! So much is happening right now in my life, that I wrote this part like 2 paragraphs at a time, it was bad. Anyway, here are the links for the facts and information I used today. As always you may ask me any questions you have, or don’t be afraid to reach out to other people as well! You can always follow me on tumblr and talk to me there if you want too @iwantyourbloodonmylips thanks guys! And stay safe!   
> http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/11/pansexuality-101/  
> http://healthresearchfunding.org/24-uncommon-bisexuality-statistics/  
> http://www.hercampus.com/school/u-mass-amherst/bisexuality-101  
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/17/what-is-asexuality_n_3360424.html?1371476978  
> http://www.asexualityarchive.com/asexuality-misconceptions-and-mistakes/  
> http://www.asexuality.org/?q=overview.html  
> That should be all!


	15. Day Three: Gender part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day three is upon us, and it is all about gender! What could possibly go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is possibly the longest day i've written so far, so for yall's sake I went ahead and cut it into two chapters, because of that all links will be on the next chapter.

The third day was upon them, and everyone seemed content to just let today be as it was. No one really pulled any pranks, no one woke up with anything drawn on them, it was a quiet morning. By the time breakfast came around the boys were more energetic, and bouncing around eating their rice and fish they all talked about their weird dreams, and what they were wanting to do today in-between presentations.

Nishanoya had been clinging to his boyfriend sense they both woke up. He didn’t want breakfast, and he didn’t want anything to drink, he said it was going to make him throw up so Asahi dropped it, but made sure that he at least carried the water bottle around with him, because the last thing they needed was him feinting again during his presentation today.

Asahi had barely managed to get Noya out of his binder last night before the boy was completely asleep. Just the memory made him shake his head, usually he was much more careful about his health, but with the stress of this presentation, and coming out to this many people at once he had fallen into bad habits that Asahi wasn’t sure where he had picked up.

“What is today even about? I don’t understand, we already know about the genders.” Some first year asked outload and a few people agreed with him.

“I don’t really care if it means we get to see Shimizu-senpai talk about girls again.” Another boy added. Noya rolled his eyes turning around to bust whoever it was but he was to late.

“Hey, you guys shouldn’t talk that way about their manager,” Kunimi spoke up, and even stood, so he could be heard by those who had agreed.

“The whole point of this retreat is to learn respect. For those who are LGBT, and for ourselves and each other regardless. We shouldn’t talk about Shimizu-senpai, and as for the genders, I don’t think either of you know as much as you think. Just you wait.” He said and took his tray, returning it, bowing to the girls to say thank you, and left.

Tanaka who was sit a bit further down from the boys, so he had missed what sparked the outburst but he caught the end, and smiled, wiping away a fake tear.

“That boy’s in /my/ group! Yes Kunimi!” he said and cheered, tossing the rest of his, thanking the girls, and running after him to congratulate him on being awesome like his mentor. Some of the other boys clapped when he walked off, and the first years who had been talking, were told by their captain to go apologize to the woman who had worked so hard to prepare their food for them.

She was completely off guard, seeing as she didn’t hear what had been said about her, only witnessed the outburst, and rolled her eyes when she realized it had been about her, but she had accepted the apology.

“Wow Kiyoko-san, you are so kind, and calm, I think I would have died if they did that to me.” Yachi spoke up and suddenly Ennoshita appeared, it wouldn’t have been so suddenly if they had been paying attention, but he heard what had been said.

“They try to,” He spoke up, leaning over to say it closer to her ear, and she jumped turning around, cheeks heating up immediately.

“They try to say stuff like that about you, but I don’t let them. You are too young.” He said smiling and then frowned because Kiyoko just rubbed her temple.

“I’m not too young Enno-senpai. L-Lots of guys like me! I’m not a kid.” She said holding her chest out a bit in defense. That had definitely been the wrong way to say that.

“No, no,” He put his arms out to help further his point, “No, I didn’t mean you were too young, I don’t think you’re a kid, you are right, you are the perfect age, a good age, for those things to happen, I just think if they stopped now, it wouldn’t get to where it’s at now for Shimizu-san.” He said looking to her with a pained expression on his face.

“For what things to happen? Do you mean you let those things happen to Shimizu?” She asked back, now crossing her arms. Ennoshita had been around a lot recently and it was nice, but right now she was confused and he was just talking in circles.

“Enno-san! Come on, we’re going to practice before the morning meeting.” Narita spoke up, looking over at the situation and raising his eyebrow, and then smirking.

“Unless you’re in the middle of something?”

“No! I’ll be right there!” He jumped at the way out, and bowed to the girls, lower than he needed to.

“If you’ll excuse me, I must leave now. Breakfast was lovely.” He said and practically sprinted away with the other second year.

Yachi turned to her senpai and gave her a look of “what the hell just happened?” The older manager just shook her head and wave the girl back to the kitchen to get back to work and forget about it. They worked, and they both thought about what happened, and Kiyoko knew she needed to speak to Chikara. Again.

“Dude, you were about to combust in there!” Yahaba said laughing as he tossed him a ball.

“I don’t know what happened, it just started all going downhill. I guess it was bound to?” He said and hit it back.

“I mean you can always talk to her later? Or just go for a guy.” Matsukawa said, tossing it back, watched the expression on his face and then continued.

“Not how it works?” He asked and Kyotani and Enno both shook their head. Suddenly the other three boys looked to the kid and Enno smiled.

“My little bi baby.” He said and Kyotani called out to Yahaba for help, because someone else was touching him. Matsukawa just laughed rolling his eyes.

After that they went on to actually practicing, and it was fun. Everyone was working together with people outside their team, and it was good because they wanted the tournament to be really good.

It was about an hour later when Kinoshita jumped up on stage and got the mic out, catching the volleyball that was thrown at him by accident. He smirked at the person who threw it, not knowing he would catch it in time.

“Alright, everyone listen up. We only have two presentations today, but don’t be fooled, they are big, and going to take up most of the time. We will have one in half an hour, and another after lunch. So, if everyone could help clean up the gym and someone separate Hinata and Kageyama please.” He added in there and everyone laughed. Except the first years who were called out, they were both bright red and immediately ran in opposite directions. So, they had gotten really close recently. That wasn’t anyone else’s concern, except it was still embarrassing to be seen being as close as they had been that morning.

After what didn’t seem long enough Noya was pacing near the stage as everyone was settling down, still not paying attention, but most were at least with their groups in their seats.

“I’m going to throw up. Most of the team doesn’t even know!” He turned around, talking to the tall figure that he had seen from the corner of his eye. He had assumed it was his boyfriend. When he was met with a blond head of hair and glasses he had realized his mistake.

“I think you have been spending too much time around Hinata.” Tsukki said and then continued.

“But, also, I know how scary it is, to have to present on something the team doesn’t even know about. But we’re not all stupid, or uneducated you know senpai.” Tsukishima ended it and frowned to himself as he reached his hand out and patted his older, yet shorter friend’s shoulder. Both boys then laughed and Noya thanked him for listening, and apologized for thinking he was Asahi.

“Don’t worry, it actually happens a lot more than I expected. People see a tall figure and think we’re each other I guess.” He shrugged and went back to his seat.

So not all of the team didn’t know. He was fairly sure he didn’t tell anyone, and Asahi and Tanaka wouldn’t. They just wouldn’t, so they must have figured it out. He wasn’t upset to know that Tsukki, and probably Yamaguchi knew, so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

“Alright guys, here is everyone’s favorite rolllllllling thunder!” Narita said and smiled looking to Noya who jumped up, still following his cues even if he was scared. People knew him as the rock, and he was a libero damnit! He could do this! He took the microphone and held it up to speak into it.

“I’m trans.” He said automatically, with no ease or finess, Narita just sort of sat on the steps, because he hadn’t even been able to get off the stage fully, but he was already starting. Asahi put his face in his hands and shook his head before looking back up at his beautiful trainwreck of a boyfriend.

He had everyone’s attention now, that was for sure. Some were whispering about what he had said, some were confused, not understanding, others just stood there wondering what had happened because they hadn’t paid attention, but they knew it was big.

“I should probably explain, I am uh, I’m here to teach you all about Transgender and what it means, and all that jazz. I was picked for the job because I am a transman.” He started and Asahi was slowly nodding again, finally, something they had rehearsed.

“As you can see the flag I have, is blue, pink and white. And it’s actually a flag, I got it at the Pride Parade a few months ago, and it hangs proudly on my bedroom door.” He said looking at the flag, and then down at his shoes. The worst part was over he figured, now he just had to explain. There were already two different hands in the air.

“I’ll answer questions after I’m finished if you don’t mind.” He said and then went and looked at his board, trying to remember what they had planned for him to talk about first.

“Uh, the definition of transgender by Merrium-Webster Dictionary is “a person who’s gender identity differs from the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth.” Which isn’t a lie, but it makes it sound different than what it actually is. I am, I know I am a man. But I wasn’t born with a man’s body.” He said turning to the crowd again. About five more hands popped up, but their group leader’s all told them to put them down, and they all went back down. Asahi smiled up at Noya and nodded his head a bit, to make him keep going.

“Uh, I obviously use male pronouns, and live as a male, but it changes for each person whether or not they want to transition, or are comfortable just knowing for themselves that they are trans.”

“Now that brings me to my next topic, transitioning.” He moved from one foot to the other. He didn’t like talking about this stuff, but he needed to. They needed to know.

“Some people never transition, some people start as soon as they know, and others will sort of like only transition it a certain degree. That means for me that I’ve decided to have top surgery when I can afford it, and I have started hormone therapy already.” He said taking a deep breath looking up to his boyfriend who had a shocked look on his face.

Oh yeah. He hadn’t told his boyfriend that yet, he was going to tell him next week. After he had been on them for a full month.

“Uh, sorry baby, but yeah, I am three weeks on T, which is an awesome feeling.” He said smiling big, unable to help it. He was three weeks on T.

“Oh, uh, “T” is testosterone, the main hormone that trans men will use in their life. It helps my voice be deeper, and helps me grow facial hair better, and a lot of other things.” He said, unable to do anything but smile. Akashi looked next to him at Asahi who was laugh-crying a bit, at his boyfriend. He was so proud. Akashi just pat his back and congratulated him, knowing Noya would get plenty of congrats later. They hugged and Noya rolled his eyes at the sight, but happy that he wasn’t upset that he didn’t tell him.

“I am very lucky because my parents are very forward thinking, and are very supportive, which is why I was able to change my name, and start therapy.” He said and then jumped to another topic. There was so much to talk about he just hoped he remembered to get it all down.

“Don’t worry, I already changed my name a long time ago, so it won’t be changing anytime soon. I am, and forever will be Nishinoya.” He said and then went to check his board again.

“Okay, I guess I should talk some more about trans female’s, first let me start,” He said turning around dramatically to the group of boys.

“By saying that they are awesome. They are some of the coolest people you will ever meet. With the best recipes, and the most colorful ways of hiding whatever you don’t want to be seen.” He said, thinking of an older female friend of his that he had met in group therapy.

“They are females that know they are female, just like I know I am male, but they are born in the body I want, not the right body for them. If we could just trade then it would be perfect. But really, there is no wrong way to be trans, that’s the biggest thing. You can be a short muscly dude, like me, or a 6-foot-tall woman. It doesn’t matter what you look like, because if someone says they are trans, then that’s all that matters. They are valid no matter what we look like.” He said nodding along. It was part of his daily routine to remind him of this. It was also part of Asahi’s routine, to remind him of them as well. That he was valid. That he was valued.

“Uh, some stats…these aren’t going to be pretty…it’s estimated that 41% percent of transgender people have attempted suicide. The leading reason behind their attempts is sexual assault, followed by physical assault, and then bullying in school or the workplace.” He paused, not thinking about it too much. He couldn’t.

“This is why it’s so important for us to know about this, about what it means to be trans, about the risks, and dangers of coming out, of how to help instead of hurt someone else. How to educate others, so we can help that number get down.”

“19% of trans people have experienced abuse from their family. That is outrageous, and is another reason we’re talking about this, so you can look for the signs, which I believe is part of what we’re talking about tomorrow, but like I said, I’m very lucky because I have very accepting parents, and they’ve managed to eliminate all family that made it clear that they weren’t, or explain it to the other members who were willing to learn. However, it’s more likely for FTM trans, to experience abuse than MTF trans.” He said and then paused again realizing what he’d done.

“Oh, uh, MTF means ‘Male to Female’ trans, which is what I am, and FTM, I’m sure you can assume means ‘Female to Male.’ Now please, do me a favor and don’t go around asking trans people this.” He said laughing at the memory he and Tanaka had, when someone came up to them and asked him this. That was an interesting mall trip.

“Uhm, another 30% of trans people have said they have been homeless at some point, and 12% of them said it was in the last year that they were homeless. Now this doesn’t take away from the general population of LGBT people who are homeless, but trans people have a bad history with being homeless.” He said and shuttered, remembering the moment he first cried after he realized he was a man. He had cried to his best friend, about what he was going to when he was thrown out. He remembered looking up information about local shelters that took in youth. He couldn’t imagine living in those.

“78% of Transgender kids have experienced harassment in school, and 31% of that has been from teachers or other staff members. Now, for those of you that aren’t paying attention, our coaches, are in the same seminar today that we are, where they are getting the exact same facts that we are. Except they don’t get to hear it from me.” He smiled, taking a small bow.

“They are being educated on how to handle a student who comes out as trans, or requests to be called a different name, or shows signs of abuse as well. They are going to leave this retreat just as educated as us, if not more, but they have to have actual seminars, where they take notes, and are tested on it. For us we can be more fun, but they are actually having to be tested on this information, so that if you ever have any questions, you can feel safe going to them.” He said and then turned back to his board.

“Uh, trans women, especially women of color are much more likely to be killed, they make up 67% of all anti-LGBT related murders. It’s a big problem, because they are the best, and they don’t deserve that. No one does.” He couldn’t help the small break in his voice when he said that. He hated looking up these statistics. Being reminded that he was part of a community that was targeted even more in a larger community that was supposed to be safe for them, and that he didn’t even have it worst in said small community? He hated how helpless he felt.

“Anyway, on to some nicer facts! Trans Day of Visibility is March 31st and yes, I did celebrate. It was very fun. A very kind old lady told Asahi she loved his beard.” He said pointing at Asahi and laughing.

“More and more people are coming out as Trans, and recently we had the first Trans Person nominee for an Oscar. That lovely woman’s name is Lavern Cox and she has been a huge icon, for the Trans Community ever sense she was first on her show.

“Now, because of all the trouble we face, there is so much support to help us, trans people, to know our rights, and there is a website called Trans Equality, that shows the different rights that we have in all sorts of different situations, and it had been a big help whenever my parents or I run into any problems. It was also nice to be able to go somewhere and learn about it.” He said and chewed his lip for a moment.

“Oh! Binders!” He said and smiled at Asahi who saw the fire in his eyes and wasn’t even able to yell no before Noya had his shirt off, and was showing off his binder.

“This is a binder, lots of trans men use it, including me, it helps hold breasts down, to appear flatter. Now, I’m again very lucky, my mom used to be sad for me, before I came out, because I come from a long line of very flat chested women. But I still wanted one, just to be extra sure. Now, again, like I said, not every trans person uses one of these. Some people are content to never use a binder, some cant because of medical reasons, some shouldn’t…” He trailed off and then slowly slid his shirt back on.

“But weather someone does or not doesn’t make them less trans, or more of a wimp, it just means that they don’t wear one.” He said and looked over to an expecting Tanaka. Noya rolled his eyes.

“Fine! Yes, it’s dangerous to do all that I do in my binder. I shouldn’t do it. I know I shouldn’t. It’s incredibly dangerous and “life threatening” to run, and play volleyball in my binder. Yes, I think it might even be illegal in technical matches on the court, because of these safety reasons. But I drink lots of water!” He said motioning to the water bottle that he had gotten earlier, that still wasn’t open.

“Usually. Look, the important thing is that I’m usually safe.” He said trying to justify all of the bad things he did.

“It’s just really hard to take it off sometimes. I get so used to seeing it on, to seeing a flat chest, that taking it off is really hard. And yes, I’ve passed out a few different times. Most of the time I’m alone, and don’t tell anyone.” He said quietly, but he knew he needed to address it.

“But I’m going to try to be better about wearing it properly.” He said a promise to his friends as much himself.

“I guess that’s a good Segway into dysphoria, I won’t talk much about it, so be ready, because the next presentation will talk more about dysphoria, but it’s basically this awful emotional distress related to your body, or your gender.”

“Now, what can you guys do. Well, the best thing you can do is just be natural? If someone tells you they are trans, and tells you they want to use different pronouns, or a different name, then just say okay. If you mess up, don’t make a big deal out of it. It was really hard for my family, but it’s finally at a point where they hardly mess up anymore, and when they do, they just say sorry and continue on. Don’t make a big deal out of having to use a different name, because I promise, they are using the wrong name in their head to.” He said taping his head.

“I still refer to myself in my dead name a lot, and it’s hard, because it makes me wonder if I really am trans if I still use the wrong name? It makes me feel really self-conscious, and like I’m a fraud, but it’s also really normal, and I have to remember that sometimes too.” He said and then sat down, legs hanging off the edge of the stage. He was tired of standing in a small area.

“Another thing is to not bring it up. Ever. If you have a question, you ask the person, quietly, privately, where there is no chance of someone else hearing. You ask them and them only. Never assume that anyone knows at all. Even if they are really proud and out about it, never assume someone is safe to ask about someone being trans, other than the person themselves. Because one of the worst things you can do is out someone. Especially if they had been putting it off, or planned to all out avoid telling that person for different reasons. You don’t know if you would be putting someone in danger. And either way, it’s no one else’s business.” He said and looked to his friend.

Tanaka sunk farther down in his seat, wanting to get rid of the horrible memory of the time he outed Noya to Asahi. He had done exactly what Noya said not to, and had assumed that he knew so he commented on it, and it ended up the three of them having to have a talk, where they all asked their questions, and got it all out of their system, and Noya had made sure to tell them that no one else knew, and that they were to tell no one.

“Just remember that if someone trusts you enough to come out to you, then they are having a much harder time with it than you are, so you need to calm down and remember that it’s not about you. Now if someone tells you that someone else is trans, or gay or anything, it’s up to you to stop that, tell them to stop telling people, and confront them.” He said, being serious again. Serious Noya, was a Noya with all eyes on him, and everyone was nodding, or also had a serious look on their face, to match the intensity of the conversation.

“Just remember to try your best to be as accepting as you can, and be a safe person for anyone who needs it. It’s really hard to be trans, and I don’t know where I’d be if I didn’t have the support system I have now.” He said looking up smiling at his friends, his team who was beaming with pride, and his other friends who were also happy. He got the distinct feeling that his system had just gotten a lot bigger.

“I think that’s all I have.” He said and smiled standing up.

“Any questions?” He hoped he had answered most of them, but there were still a few hands up, so he took the first one near the front.

“How would a…uhm..how would a guy transition into a girl?” Koganegawa asked, comfortable enough in his own gender to ask without worrying what people might think he’s asking for. He was just worried about asking the right way.

Noya smiled at him. He had ben relatively quiet during the retreat so far, just absorbing the information, and playing in practice. He had been a victim of the Great Water Fight of Karasuno, but other than that, he had been easy to overlook, not having much problems with anything that had been said. Surprisingly well-educated already.

“Well it depends on the woman. She might have bottom surgery, but it is very, very expensive, so she might choose instead to just undergo hormone therapy, to receive Estrogen, and do her best to eat foods that help. She might grow her hair out, and choose dress more traditionally feminine, and change her name. It is all depending on what she wants.” He said and Koganegawa sat down nodding, reminding himself to look more into it later. He wanted to know.

“Anyone else?”

Bokuto stood up then, he was farther in the back, and decided that his question was next.

“What is a dead name? You said it earlier?” He asked looking down at his phone where it looked like he had been taking notes. Noya cringed. He hated going over dead names.

“A dead name is a term used to describe the name someone was given at birth, before they transitioned, or, changed it.” He said and Bokuto was quick with the response.

“Oh, what was yours?” He asked and suddenly yanked down by Shibayama who just put his face in his hand. Stepping up to take one for the team and try to shut their senpai up.

Noya laughed at the confusion on his face, and Shiba trying to quietly explain what he had done wrong. Noya could see Akashi in the back rubbing his temples.

“It is very disrespectful to ask someone’s dead name. If you know it then you should do your best to not use it anymore, and not tell others. If you don’t know it, like I said, don’t ask. Its dead to them for a reason. You shouldn’t want to make someone relive whatever feelings or problems happened to make their name dead to them.” He said looking at Bokuto at first, but then panning over, to finish it for everyone.

“Sorry.” Bokuto piped up one more time and Noya just smiled at him and told him it was okay, but now he knew.

“I don’t like telling people my name because as soon as they have it in their head that I have a different name, an “original” or “real” name they start thinking of me as that, and even if they still call me the right name, I know, that they know that I’ve had a different name, and from then on out, will always think of me with both names.” He said from his heart.

“Okay, Kino is saying we should wrap it up. So, thanks for letting me talk to you guys about this. And thanks for not storming the stage with fire and pitchforks.” He laughed and handed the mic back to his friend and made his way off the stage, only to be surprised by the reaction he got. The entire room was clapping, and Hinata ran up to him and hugged him. Tanaka smacked him on the back and laughed with him.

He was right, his support group had just quadrupled in size, and he was so very excited.

“Thank you Noya for that, uh, any more questions should be saved for the group meeting tonight, either in person, or with the boxes left in the bathrooms, thank you so much guys, we have enough time for another short game, if you all want, and then lunch. Today we’ll be having…Chicken, soup, with rice and mixed veggies. Thank you.” He said and dismissed the boys who all started talking at once with everyone else.

Some of the boys did start up another game. Most, however, took the time to talk to each other, or ask each other about what they had just learned about, some were on their phones, texting someone about something or another, others looking up different stuff from the presentation.

Yamaguchi was sitting outside on the steps with Tsukki when the lunch bell rang. Breakfast had gone down, and stayed down just fine, but he was sure he would throw up if he even went near food right now. Tsukki had been doing his best to remind the shorter boy that he needed to eat to stay alive, and reminding him what Noya had said about staying hydrated and being responsible.

“I don’t wear a binder Kei.” He said glaring at his friend and then groaned and tuck and rolled onto the ground. Eyes closed, he just laid there for a moment.

“Maybe they’ll just not notice me, trample me, and I won’t have to present.” He said melodramatically and Tsukishima rolled his eyes going over and putting his food on his thigh.

“I’m going to eat. Don’t get trampled, I can’t make out with roadkill.” He said and used the smaller boy as a stepping stone to get where he was going. Tadashi just winced but didn’t move until the doors opened and he finally sat up. He had to convince people that he was fine so they would go eat.

Noya was the only one that sat down next to him. Tadashi just looked over to him, opened one eye a bit, to see him against the sun that was threatening to blind him.

“It’s okay. I know you’re next. It will be okay. This is the best group of guys to tell stuff too.” He said and then hugged him and left him alone, knowing how important that can be too.

‘He’s a good senpai.’ He thought to himself, and then, groaned again. He laid back down and turned his head against the sun and opened his eyes a bit. Tucked beside the stairs, hidden from most sight was a small box. He wanted to know what it was. It looked like a short pocky box. He sat up and crawled over, moving some of the grass and pulling it out.

“Oh. Cigarettes.” He said and sighed setting the carton down. Coach must have dropped them, or hidden them for when he ran out. He had never thought much about cigarettes, despite what his primary school had told him he would. By his age he was supposed to have been pressured into smoking by now. He laughed to himself at the thought of the awful films they made them watch.

He knew all the health concerns with it, he knew it wasn’t supposed to smell good, but he didn’t mind it. That was probably where the problem started, if he paid attention. He wondered though, if it was so bad, why did people still do it? Surely it had some sort of positive effect, or feeling to make them keep smoking, right? Pressure was pressure, he thought. It didn’t have to be from a peer…it could be from himself.

He picked up the pack and put it in his pocket, passing the lunch room altogether, and headed right to the sleeping rooms. He looked around before he started digging. He knew the best chance was one of three people. His now boyfriend, Tsukki. His close friend, Kenma. And his new friend, who seemed to always be prepared, Yahaba. The third was the winner, he found a box of matches and took just one, to not appear suspicious. He put it back in the bag that was resting between the two close sleeping mats. It was entirely possible it was…oh what was his name…Kyotani!

“Mad dog-chan!” As Oikawa always called him. Yes, very possible.

He knew why the other three would have a lighter, but he didn’t know much about Kyotani. He just shrugged and left the room before he was seen. He walked as far as he could, he wanted to keep space between him and everyone else, he also had to be sure to not be seen by the teachers who were in the building.

Finally, after finding the right spot he hit the small box to his hand, like he had seen people do in movies. He then opened the pack and pulled one of the sticks out and lit the match against some brick behind him. Quickly, but carefully he touched the match to the cigarette and breathed in. The end turned a bright red color, and he was coughing. He snapped his wrist causing the flame from the match to die, tossing the now useless match aside, he moved the cigarette from his lips and coughed up the smoke that had just been in his lungs.

It burned. He honestly had no idea why people did this. But he was not going to back down. There was no one to watch him be a wimp, so he could cough as much as he needed to, but he was going to finish this.

He took another drag from it, and let most of the smoke out before he coughed this time. Better. By the end of the cigarette he was barely coughing. He was going to grind the remaining short bit left into the wall when suddenly his hand was covered by a shadow. He looked up and saw someone standing there but it was hard to see who because the sun was behind them. He was frozen though, terrified. He had been caught.


	16. Day Three: Gender part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part two of day three, gender; nothing will go wrong.

“Hey, hey, hey! Wait!” Bokuto called and ran over. He grabbed the pack, pulling one out, and taking the almost out cigarette from Yama’s fingers, and touched them together? Tadashi wasn’t sure what he did, but then his senpai was dropping the old one, putting it out, and breathing out the smoke from his now lit cigarette and groaned.

“You shouldn’t be smoking.” He said finally addressing Yama who was sitting there just watching the Fukurodani Captain. It would hold much more weight if he wasn’t taking another drag, and clearly enjoying the smoke, taking in much more than Tadashi was able to.

“Uh, Senpai…you…” He said and then quickly shut his mouth. He was so confused.

“Well I’m older, you are not. Don’t tell Akashi. I’m not supposed to be.” He said and sat down with him now, back on the ground.

“How did you find me?” Tadashi asked looking to him, watching how he let the cigarette rest against his lips with ease. The smoke coming out his nose. It was impressive, and obvious that he used to do this quite a lot.

“I followed the smell. Figured it would be a coach, but when I saw it was you I was relieved. Can’t go around stealing cigarettes from coaches now can I. That would be bad. They definitely wouldn’t let me. How did you even get these? You have to be older to buy them, don’t you?” He asked, finishing off a lot of information. Tadashi was processing all of it when Akashi came around the corner.

“Damnit Bokuto!” he yelled and ran over, grabbing the cigarette and looking at him.

“We had a deal!” He yelled and Bokuto started saying something but he was cut off.

“I can’t belive you…” He trailed off when he then also bought the cigarette to his lips and took a drag.

“Jesus…I hate you.” He said, closing his eyes as he let the smoke out. When he opened them back up, he looked to Yama.

“Why are you here?” He asked, unaware that it had been his pack.

“Caught him smoking.” Bokuto snapped and took the cigareete back, lighting a different one the same way, for the second year. He then took his own back and finished it off after a bit.

“Damnit Kotaru, we can’t do this again…we’ve been so good.” He said and they all three stood up.

“Okay, but a few won’t kill us.” He said in his defense, pocketing the pack, not even mentioning that it was Yamaguchi who brought it. The boy was mildly offended that he wasn’t given it back, but also figured it was for the better. They were right, he shouldn’t start smoking.

No one really mentioned it when they got back to the main room, and Tadashi went in and grabbed a juice before the cafeteria was closed. They went to practice, and Tsukki caught up with his boyfriend in the gym, going over the notes he had for his presentation.

He came up behind him, wrapping his arms around him and then kissing him. Pulling back, he looked at him.

“Did you smoke?” The taller boy asked looking around to make sure no one heard him. He then turned back to his friend.

“Yes.” Was the only response he got. Tsukki opened his mouth to say something, but Tadashi did the same thing, cutting him off before words ever left his mouth. They both closed them again and Tsukki rolled his eyes and went back to sitting, pulling Tadashi between his legs, on the steps in front of him to go over his notes. He didn’t have much room to talk.

It was another hour before Narita got on stage and looked to Tadashi and nodded. Both him and Tsukki stood up to go on stage and Kinoshita laughed and told Tsukki he couldn’t be on stage with him, he just stared d at him and honestly was surprised. He didn’t expect that for Yama’s presentation that he wasn’t able to be on stage with him. The shorter boy just laughed and waved Kei off stage before he took a deep breath, coughing from the smoke he had earlier. He didn’t mind it.

“Alright guys, let’s get the next presentation started. This is my favorite pinch server Yamaguchi!”

Yahaba stood up in protest and then laughed as he sat back down as everyone got quiet for the small boy.

“I’m going to be doing a presentation on genderfluidity.” He said looked out. Everyone was just staring, similar to what had happened at the start of Noya’s presentation, except no one knew what it was.

“Uh, as you can see my flag is a lot of colors. It’s pink, white, purple, black, and blue.” He said pointing at all of the colors.

“Genderfluid means just what it sounds like, it’s fluid. Sometimes it means that I feel more masculine, and sometimes I’ll feel more feminine. Most times I feel masculine, but it’s usually when it’s really hot that I feel girly. I’ll wear summer dresses, or skirts and crop tops.” He said biting his lip. He suddenly wished that Yachi was here.

A few of the boys looked uncomfortable, and some others were amused at the thought. Tsukki just pushed his glasses up and forced himself to continue listening and not say anything.

“It’s becoming a much more known term, there is even a popular actress in America who has come out as gender fluid, who has changed the game in a way.” He said and shuffled his cards around.

“Uhm, genderfluid is different than transgender like Noya, because I don’t feel like a girl. I just feel like me, and sometimes me is more of a girl, and sometimes me is more of a guy, and every once in a while, me is neither gender.” He said using his hands to show two different sides of a line.

“See gender is more of a spectrum than anything. On one end is the most feminine a person can be. A female at the highest form. That includes all females, not just cisgender women,” He made sure to mention that.

“And then on the other end, is the most masculine you can get. A total dude, a man’s man.” He said motioning to the other side of this imaginary scale he had created with his hands.

“There are all different sorts of people who are on all different points of this spectrum. Some people are more like a dude but like to be more feminine, so they’d be on their side, but closer to the middle. Same for girls. Some people are right in the middle and are bigender, others, like myself go all across the line. Sometimes I’m over on the right, sometimes the left.” He said moving his arms around and forgetting the imaginary line he had visualized in his head.

“The whole point of being genderfluid is that it’s fluid. I can go anywhere on the line, and sometimes, I go off the line completely, and just want to be without either gender really, and go for a completely androgynous look. Like other gender nonconforming people. It’s just about being who you are, and for me, that changes on a daily basis. Sometimes multiple times a day depending.” He shrugged and looked around.

“I know this is going to be hard for a lot of people, but it’s becoming more and more common and we need to know about it. Other people need to know about it, to help people not feel alone.” He said and took a deep breath. So, he wouldn’t feel so alone. Online chat rooms, and groups online were great and all, but he really wanted more support in real life. Tsukki and Yachi were great, but sometimes he wanted to talk to someone else.

“Now my parents don’t know, they’re not very understanding about such things, and I even found a way to bring it up one day, and they were not pleased, which is something a lot of people face.” He said getting back on track.

“It’s just super important that those who know things about people know whether or not their family knows, or if they want other people to know. Remember it’s not your place to tell people about someone’s gender or sexuality.” The group of boys below were just taking in the information. Hinata made him smile because he looked just like he did when he was studying. Trying his hardest, and just barely understanding it…maybe.

“That’s my next subject, the difference between gender and sexuality.” He moved a few cards around to get to the right one.

“Uh, Noya-senpai is Gay, and Trans. He has also given me permission to talk about this, because he said, “I don’t care who knows, it’s pretty obvious I only care about Volleyball and dick,” yes that is a direct quote Asahi-senpai.” He looked up at the small joke he made and Noya laughed as their ace turned a bright red color and others laughed also.

“But, being Trans is not the same as being Gay. Being gay means, he is attracted to guys. Trans means he wants to be one. Understand? Just like me, personally, being genderfluid means that my gender moves around, and being pan, like Asahi-senpai, means that I am attracted to anyone, even those who’s gender moves around.” He changed his notecard then.

“I believe that’s all I have…” He said biting his lip and looking back onto his board really quick.

He nodded and stood up handing the microphone back to Narita, and he stood there awkwardly when Tsukishima stood up and started clapping. Soon all of the Karasuno team was clapping and standing up cheering. Other boys stood up too. Not all of them, but the ones that were, were clapping and hollering. Tadashi just blushed bright red and hid his face.

“Alright, does anyone have any questions for Yamaguchi?” Kinoshita asked and smiled as the clapping slowly died own.

A few hands went up and he picked the first one. This was the most nerve wracking part of it.

Hanamaki stood up and cleared his throat before he spoke.

“So are you trans too?” He asked not bothering to be nervous or anything, he was still confused.

“I mean,” He started to explain his question a bit more, but there were quite a few people who were glaring at him, or scoffing at him for asking.

“You say you like to dress up and be a girl sometimes, so isn’t that being trans?” He questioned.

Tadashi shifted on his feet and looked to Noya, who looked ready to stand up and defend him if he wanted. He decided that he was going to handle this himself. He had done a lot today, he was a different Tadashi now.

“No. If I was trans I would have helped Noya present. If I was trans I wouldn’t have done a presentation on being gender fluid. I like to wear dresses because they feel nice, and they are fun to wear, and it’s nice not to have to match pants with a shirt. But I feel feminine sometimes. Not all the time, other times I feel more masculine. That’s why I’m gender fluid.” He said standing up straighter when he finished.

Hanamaki was still confused, but he wasn’t trans, so he sat down, his question answered.

Oikawa stood up then, which made Tsukki snap his head to the direction of the great king.

“I have a question.” He stated as if it wasn’t obvious.

Narita stood up then and looked to Kinoshita, “I don’t know if we have enough time…” He started to say.

“We do.” Yamaguchi said to the emcee’s and then turned to Oikawa.

“Why do you still go by Tadashi when you are more feminine sometimes? Or do you go by a different name those days?” He said and looked over to find Tsukishima and Kageyama both glaring at him, mumbling under their breath. They were scary similar sometimes.

“That’s actually a very good question,” Yama started as he moved to sit on the edge of the stage and let his legs hang off the side.

“I go by Tadashi, because that’s my name. I like my name. I’m still me even if I’m a girl one day, or a boy the next. I’m still me, and my name is Tadashi. But for a lot of people they’ll change their name depending on the day, or sometimes change it all together to be more neutral so it’s not biased based off what gender they are that day. It’s very common, and it’s always good to ask.” He said and then handed his microphone to Kinoshita to close down the meeting as he walked over to his group and sat back down. Thanking everyone who commented on how well he did.

The boys broke off for break until the nightly meeting in a couple of hours, and everyone was pretty calm. There wasn’t a whole lot of yelling or kicking which was good. It was almost too good.

“Have you guys seen any of the first years?” Daichi asked suddenly looking around the gym trying to spot his own children.

Bokuto spoke up with a smirk in his voice as much as on his face.

“I always know where my team is.”

“No.” Akashi said as he walked up from behind him, making the captain jump. Kuroo laughed and fist bumped the shorter boy. It hurt Bokuto’s feelings, which made it better.

“Lev is practicing his receives with your two first years out in the courtyard outside. He needs more room, where there is less of a chance to hit people.” Yaku said pointing the doors that led out to the middle area. Daichi nodded, that explained why it was so quiet inside.

“Do you always keep track of him?” Moniwa spoke up looking over to Yaku with a smirk.

“No, but he’s tall and hard to miss. Plus, his dad told me to look after him.” He gave a shrug, flipped the entire group off for good measure, and headed out the door.

After a while of games, and talking, Hinata came back in the doors and walked over to the water dispenser and chugged down two cups but it didn’t help his face at all, it looked as red as his hair.

“What’s wrong?” Aone asked coming over to his short friend.

“N-nothing!” He turned to try and leave but the taller boy stopped him and then took his arm and walked him to a quieter part of the gym.

“What’s wrong?” He asked exactly the same way. It was scary, Hinata noted.

“Kageyama was too hot outside, so he took his shirt off like a douch bag and is just trying to play without a shirt!” He said, explaining his problem. Aone just nodded and then grunted moving his way across the gym to the supply closet. Hinata followed behind trying to ask him what he was doing.

“Here. Go play with this ball.” He said after picking up a ball and having his back turned to him for a little bit. He finally handed him the ball a very specific way. He then nodded again and went back out to the main gym and pat him on the back and winked as he went back to his game he was in the middle of.

Hinata had no idea what that meant but he was walking out, tossing the ball around that Aone had given him. They had a ball, that wasn’t the problem though. He noticed something on the ball that shouldn’t have been and he stopped walking and turned it to read something that his friend had written on the ball.

“I like you!”

Hinata just looked at the ball. Surely it wasn’t Aone giving it to him. Because he gave it to give to Kage…yama...

“No…no…no!” He said out loud, yelling the last one.

“Yes!” Koganegawa yelled back, high fiving Aone. He looked over and rolled his eyes at them. He didn’t like Kageyama like that! You liked pretty girls like Yachi, even if they were like your sister. Or like Shimizu-senpai…even if she was like a sister too…

He realized he didn’t really like any of the girls he knew. But that didn’t mean he liked Kageyama. He had thought about liking boys for a while now, but those boys were never Tobio!

They loved volleyball of course, and were always taller than him, handsome, cool, and they had to be good with Natsu, like Kage was.

Hinata let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding and his knees gave out so it sat on the floor, holding the volleyball in his hands. He liked Kageyama. He remembered how he stood up for him at the store fight, how well he was handling Natsu, how much they laughed together as much as they fought. How everyone always assumed they were together anyway, and he never minded it until Kageyama started to say something about it.

It also explained the butterflies he had when Kageyama took his shirt off a bit ago. Then he remembered why all of this started.

~“What? Don’t uh, like the view?” Kageyama had said, obviously uncomfortable saying the rehearsed line he had learned from someone else, probably Kuroo.~

He blushed at it again and flipped the volleyball over so he didn’t see the words anymore and he stood up, and took a deep breath as he walked out. The first thing he did was duck to avoid being hit with the ball that went flying into the gym through the door.

“Sorry Hinata!” Lev yelled going over and apologizing again.

“It’s okay, uh I have a new ball for us anyway, thought it would happen at some point. He said and going over and standing next to Yaku-senpai.

“Uh, go over there and it’ll be us versus you and To- uh Kageyama.” He said and cleared his throat.

Yaku watched the younger boy go and then looked to his new teammate and who was clearly nervous. He waited until they were talking to start serving.

“Wait Hinata!” He called but the ball was the most perfect shot he had ever done. Clear, strong, and angled perfectly. It hit Kageyama directly in the back of the head. The four of them froze. The ball, rolled around on the floor until it ended up at his feet. Kageyama picked the ball up, ready to yell at Hinata when he noticed the writing on it and he blushed, cursing the sun, because his blush went all down his chest, and it was visable.

“Kageyama-san are you okay?” Lev asked and Yaku just rolled his eyes and laughed at him, motioning for him to come back over to his side. He had caught on after he hit it.

“Go.” He said to Hinata and had the first year’s switch place so Hinata was with Kageyama. He just turned around and smacked his head from the back.

“Idiot, you could have just told me, you dindn’t have to hit me in the head with it. You’re serves are hard!” He said turning back around to start the game. As his hand connected with the ball, the smacking sound almost drowned out the quite “Me too.” He said. Hinata smiled and leapt over to tackle hug Kageyama and before Lev was able to receive it Yaku jumped in and caught it.

“Let’s go practice over there.” He said smiling as he pulled a pouting Russian giant away from the very cute moment that was happening on the other side of their makeshift court.

The two of them just hugged each other, Kageyama’s face tucked into Hinata’s unruly hair, and Hinata considered himself to be extreamly lucky because he was face first into Tobio’s toned, and sun warmed skin. It was awesome. The door to the gym shut, and neither boy really moved. This was good for them right now. It was something both of them had been wanting to do for a while now.

“Hey Yahaba! You and your puppy owe me and Aone 20 bucks each!” Koganegawa yelled across the gym. Both Yahaba and Kyotani looked up and groaned.

“You heard him dog, go pay.” He said and motioned towards the Date Tech boys.

“Oi, call me that one more time and I’ll bite you, asshole!” Kyotani said and rolled his eyes going back to tossing the ball back and forth with Watari.

“I’d like to see you try.”

“Oh, shut up!” He called back, seriously not understanding how people thought he was the bigger ass between the two of them. Watari was growing tired of the both of them.

“Make me!” Yahaba said standing up from where he sat against the wall.

Kyotani caught the ball, looked directly at his best friend and spoke boldly.

“I will, but you might moan a little.” He said and then tossed the ball back to his other friend, completely ignoring the stunned boy. It was as if someone had put a loading bar in front of him. He didn’t know how to react to that, he just stood watching him toss and receive.

The rest of the afternoon sped by. Hinata and Kageyama side by side playing better than ever before. Yahaba avoiding Kyotani, and Yaku hearding Lev and ignoring the other third years who gave him shit for it.

Finally, it was time for dinner and all the boys piled in the room. Everyone scarfed down their curry. All of the boys were hungry from a big day of information, and practice. After dinner, even the first years wanted a break, so they decided to play some stupid game one of them had heard of.

Sitting themselves in a circle they all went around asking questions in a “True or False” sense, to get more information about each other, or to confirm something they thought about another.

“Suga, is it true that you and Daichi are going to live together and attend the same University?” Matsukawa asked and Suga laughed nodding, turning to lean against Daichi in a cute way.

“Alright, Akashi, is it true that you once got Bokuto and Kuroo to buy you a dress?” He said, remembering hearing the rumor from Daichi and having a small bet going that it was true.

Kurro just looked down and rubbed his neck, Bokuto’s ears shot up and turned bright red while he looked to Akashi expecting him to be mad.

“Yup. True. I still have it. It’s got pansies on it, and it’s gorgeous.” He said shrugging as he then looked around for his next victim.

“Iwazumi. Is it true that Oikawa only owns alien underwear?” He asked sitting back as everyone turned to him in shock, because they did not expect Akashi to ask such a brilliant question.

“Yeah?” He answered hesitantly, knowing there was a trick to this question, but unable to find it, until Oikawa smacked his arm and hid his face in his hands and everyone “ooo’d” and laughed.

“Oh fuck you Akashi. Fine, you win this one.” He said not wanting to start any war so he looked around choosing someone else to ask.

“Kenma, is it true that you can skateboard really well?” He asked and the fake blond poked his head up from his game and nodded.

“Yeah. I uh..I have like 12 different boards.” He said quietly, surprising everyone except a small handful who had actually been to his room.

“Woah Kenma-senpai that’s so cool!” Lev called and begged to go. Kenma, not wanting to ask anyone anything gave his turn to the younger boy.

“Uh, Fukunaga! Is it true that you have a whole youtube channel of the videos you make of scaring us at practice?”

The boy was caught off guard, most people didn’t call on him for stuff like this. He laughed as he nodded.

“Yeah, videos of scaring you guys, my family, strangers, and just random video’s. Pretty popular.” He said and everyone stopped to go immediately look up the video channel. Finally, it was Onaga who found it, calling it out, and everyone surrounded him as they played the video’s and looked at the view count.

“Holy shit, Fukunaga, you didn’t tell us you were a famous youtuber!” Kurro yelled and they all spent the next hour or so going over his video’s and different video’s. Him telling them all about uploading them, and being contacted by Youtube.

Narita jumped up finally and grabbed Kinoshita to go grabbed all the questions out of the boxes, and left Daichi and Suga to have all the boys get into their groups for the night meeting.

When they got back the boys ran onto the stage, running about 20 minutes late already, they had wanted to start early even, because they figured that today would have a lot of questions, and they were right.

“You guys had a lot of questions today huh? Okay, so let’s just get started with the first one.” Kinoshita said and pulled a piece of paper from the small pile they made on the stage with them.

“I think my cousin is trans, but they haven’t told me yet, can I ask about it if I’m very careful?” He said and looked over to Noya and then back into the crowd.

“No.” He said looking out, but speaking directly into the microphone.

“If your cousin is trans then they are a lot more scared and going through a lot more than you are. You can wait.” He said then and looked to his friend who smiled at him, proud of the answer he gave.

“Next question,” Narita said picked up a paper, “So what’s in your pants?” He said and then looked out into the crowd and sighed.

“I don’t even know who to ask this too, so…any takers?” He said out loud and looked around. Very calmly Tsukishima got up and walked up taking the microphone, clearing his throat and speaking.

“Bee’s.” He said and then went and sat down again, leaving everyone slightly more confused than before. Finally, Noya got up and went over and smirked at Asahi who looked nervous.

“A bigger dick than yours.” He said and the room just laughed.

“Yeah, guys, just don’t ever ask that. Ever. Or I’ll send Tsukki after you.” Kino spoke up laughing. He picked up another paper and read it.

“You’ve never…” He paused and handed it to Narita who did the same double take, clearing his throat he spoke up.

“You’ve never attempted suicide right Noya?” He then held the microphone out for him to take, as if it was burning his hand. Everyone had gone silent, this was something they didn’t expect, and it hit everyone, getting the better of everyone’s curiosity.

“I’d be lying if I said I’d never thought about it. I think it’s pretty common, but I have never gone through with any plans no. I’ve never tried. I can’t say the same for everyone in this room, odds are that about a fifth of us have, and while I’ve never tried that, I have done a lot of stupid shit that I shouldn’t have.” He said somberly, he wasn’t proud of the stuff he’d done, but it needed to be said, so he could forgive himself and move on. He went back and sat down as they pulled another paper out, and hoped it wouldn’t be so serious.

“Why don’t you just say you’re a crossdresser, that’s basically what you are right Yamaguchi?” Narita said and laughed as he handed the microphone to the small boy. He coughed before he answered.

“I am not a crossdresser, and that is a very rude term, that if I was more like Tsukki would punch you for. Don’t ever call someone that. I am genderfluid, that’s it. It’s really not a big deal guys.” He said and shrugged handing the mic back to the boys.

“The next one reads, ‘If you don’t have a dick, how do you know you’re a guy’?” He said and gave an exasperated sigh.

“I’m going to go ahead and guess the answer is the same way you know you’re a guy? Because it’s not a physical thing, it’s something in your mind that tells you what you are.” Kinoshita said, looking to Noya who nodded.

Kino read the next question, there was only a few left.

“What was your first name?” He looked confused looking to his friends.

“Well my name is Hisashi, what is yours?” Kinoshita said looking to Narita.

“My first name is Kazuhito, thanks for asking stranger, I know you couldn’t be trying to ask Noya his dead name, like we talked about being completely inappropriate and rude.” He said sarcastically looking to the group of boys, these questions were hurtful, even if they were asked in an honestly curious way. The boys could tell it was wearing Noya and Tadashi out. Nishinoya was practically buzzing with stressful energy.

“How do you know if someone is trans?” Narita read and just raised an eyebrow looking out into the crowd.

“Uh, they tell you. If you have great gaydar, then there are signs you’ll get to know I guess, but the only real answer is for them to tell you. If you are unsure about someone’s gender and are worried about misgendering them you can always ask what pronouns they use. That is a polite way of getting some more information, and if they know that you are comfortable asking that, and open to the idea of using their preferred pronouns, then they are more likely to see you as being accepting to them being trans, or genderfluid. And you’ll make their day.” Kinoshita answered this, he and another of his friends outside of school had talked about this, and he talked with Noya about it before he really knew he was trans. It made him proud to know this.

“Second to last question guys,” Kino spoke up and read the next one aloud, “Isn’t there therapy...uh…Isn’t there therapy for trans people?” He read the question and rubbed his temple. Tadashi rubbed his eyes, hoping that no one commented on it. Noya just groaned, everyone else was silent. He couldn’t take it anymore.

“Who asked this?!” He yelled standing up and going and taking the microphone away from the boy.

“Who asked this question?” He repeated into the mic. No one said anything, just moved around uncomfortable.

“I want to know, come on, who is man enough to ask this to my face? Because I want to know who, who of you wants to send me and other /human beings/ to those camps.” He took a pause, but no one was going to be interrupting him, and no one was about to stand up and admit that they asked the question that caused this explosion.

“Because yeah, there are camps like that. There are camps that people send their children too. Children! Kid’s, as young as seven and eight, where they take them and make them conform to their assigned gender, go by their “given name,” and there are even cases of shock therapy. Do you know what that is? It’s where they strap you down, and shock you with electricity until your mind doesn’t “want to be trans anymore.” I don’t think you understand what that does to a person.” He said angry, tears coming to his eyes but his voice was steady and threatening.

“They force those kids to watch awful things, do awful things, force them to be someone they’re not, and brainwash them to be “normal” or whatever. It’s sickening, and I want to know wants to send me there so I can kick your ass.” He said before Asahi came over and took the microphone away and handed back to them and moved to take the smaller boy outside to calm down. Tadashi and Hinata followed them outside, and Tsukki just pushed his glasses up and looked around, trying to see if he could see who said it.

“I mean, that’s a little extreme of a reaction, it was /just/ a question.” Sarukui said and shrugged.

“You don’t get it do you? You are so entitled, you "/just/" told Noya-san that you thought he should undergo conversion therapy, shock therapy, to become something he’s not. That he should go and get ‘fixed’ or something.” Yaku spoke up from across the small circle their group made up.

“I just don’t understand why he would want to be trans if there was a way to help him not be!” He spoke up again, making it clear he was the one who asked.

“It’s not his choice!” Daichi’s voice boomed through the gymnasium.

“How about I get a tazer and taze your dick to help you not be such a dumbass huh? Would you like that?” Tsukishima spoke up as he got up to walk over to the boy.

“Why don’t you try and we’ll see how far you get.” He said standing up, not backing down to the fight. Daichi and Kuroo both headed straight for the two knowing neither would back down.

“On second thought, forget the tazer.” Tsukki said finally getting close enough, and without another breath he threw the first punch, hitting the third-year square in the jaw. It was a perfect hit and it sent the boy stumbling backwards. Everyone froze to see what would happen. Even Daichi and Kuroo stopped, surprised by the hit.

“You little shit!” Sarukui yelled and stood up throwing his first punch, getting Tsukishima in the chest, knocking his wind out. He wasn’t a great shot, but he had a strong arm. There was a sort of switch flipped in Tsukki and it was like he wasn’t there anymore. It was based on an instinct telling him to survive. To win.

That was all it took for the fight to really start, the boys falling to the floor after a short while, both getting good hits in, with Tsukki having the upper hand thanks to being taller. The other captains were on top of both of them, pulling them away from each other, still swinging. Kuroo finally yelled at the top of his lungs for them to stop after he got elbowed hard in the ribs.

Picking up his glasses Kei stormed off, pushing past Tadashi who along with the other three boys had come back in when they heard the commotion. Kuroo ran after him.

“What the hell are you thinking? Are you trying to get this retreat canceled?” Daichi yelled. Bokuto just looked ashamed. He didn’t think anyone on his team would do this. Akashi thought if anyone would it would have been Bokuto to get in the fight. Or a first year…

“He hit me! What are you talking about?” Sarukui asked and felt his split lip, wincing a bit. He was still on the floor. Kindaichi brought him a cold wet paper towel to put on it until they bandaged it up.

“He’s a first year. You are about to graduate. You are an adult for crying out loud. You can’t just go about beating on kids! I don’t care if they throw the first punch, I don’t even care if he beat the shit out of you, you should have stopped it!” Daichi was about to start in on him when he was cut off with Bokuto yelling at him. Everyone was surprised, again. Somehow his captain got through to him and the third year mumbled an apology. He still didn’t fully understand, but the reaction he got was enough to let him know that it was no longer an option, and he’d never be bringing the therapy up again.

Kinoshita and Narita were scared, and didn’t know what to do so Daichi called it a night, leaving any other questions for the next day. He also called for an early curfew and said everyone was to be in bed within the hour. The other captains all agreed and they dispersed, slowly cleaning up the gym, everyone whispering about the fight.

It was bound to happen really, when you get this much testosterone in the same room, for that long of a time, it was going to happen, Oikawa just hoped this would be the one fight they had, and wouldn’t have to deal with it again. Despite what people might think he hated fighting and was so close to it that he was silent, to shook up to say anything.

“Kei! Stop!” Kuroo yelled to the blond boy who was still running, they were on the other side of campus, almost off grounds. The boy stopped running at the words, as if Kuroo had found his off switch. He instead went to the nearest wall and put his forehead against the brick. It was cool, but it was too soft. He slammed his fist against the wall, hitting it again and again until the captain caught up and grabbed him. Twisting him around he pulled him against his chest, hugging him tightly, not giving him a choice.

“Don’t do that. It’s okay.” Was all he said, arms wrapped around the boy who struggled for quite some time, finally calming down. His body just accepted its fate, and let the endorphins fade away, leaving the throbbing pain in his hands, eye, and chest. The emotional pain was worse though. He had only cried a few times since everything had happened, he thought he was past this.

“Sorry…” He mumbled into Tetsuro’s chest, and that was his cue that he was okay to let go of now. The boys started walking back to the nearest bathroom.

“I know what Yamato said was bad, but it was no reason to fight.” He spoke calmly, but he meant what he said.

“I know.”

“You know better than to start fighting. You worked so hard to leave that part behind. It wasn’t your fight to be in either. You know that right?”

"Yes.”

“Look at me.” He paused and stopped walking so his ‘brother’ could look at him, his left eye already swelling up.

“People are always going to be like that, you can’t always start using your fists. You have to learn to let them be ignorant. Because if you too were strangers, if he wasn’t older, if Daichi wouldn’t most likely be tearing him a knew one for fighting with a first year, you could have been arrested. If you had been legal age, you could have been anyway.” He said forcing him to maintain eye contact.

“I know it’s hard to ignore sometimes, but the best you can do is make sure that everyone around those kinds of people know that they are wrong. Even if you can’t convince them otherwise if the people around them that are still impressionable know the right way then that’s what’s important. But you can’t influence people if you are starting fights, no one will take you seriously.” He felt for the boy, really he did. But he also felt for Sarukui, because he knew how hard Tsukki hit when he was like that.

“Let’s get you cleaned up and back to Tadashi okay?” He asked and the other boy nodded as they went into the nearest bathroom, the girls’ bathroom in the west building. They washed his eyes off, and checked his chest for a few cuts that would be gone in morning, looking at his hands which were the worst of all. His knuckles would need bandages, so until they got back they just washed them off.

By the time the two were back in the common room they went over to the medic station and wrapped his knuckles, Yamaguchi coming up to them and silently wrapping his arms around his boyfriend, and burying his head in his chest while Kuroo worked on bandaging him.

He left the two first years to rest and go to his own sleeping bag. He got changed, and wrapped up with Kenma, who wasn’t playing a game, but rather texting his mother about what had happened, he usually updated her every night, but it was usually just a one message deal, one telling what happened, one reply to say goodnight. This time they were having a conversation, and when it was over Kenma put all of his electronics on the charger and curled up with Tetsuro who just wrapped himself around his boyfriend and they both passed out quickly.

Oikawa and Iwazumi both were asleep, curled up, backs turned to each other. Nights like this Oikawa always wanted space, which Iwa usually didn’t mind. The fight had affected them differently, and they had both wished for sleep soon enough, knowing that in the morning they would both feel better.

Hinata had curled up next to Kageyama, like how they usually woke up, cutting to the chase now that they had confessed to each other. Neither fell asleep quickly, they just listened to the noises of the room, felt each other breathing, and reveled in the momentary peace.

Sarukui just laid in his bag, eyes closed, going back over the entire night, and countless nights at home with his family. He was reevaluating everything he had ever thought about therapy. Moving to lay on his side he curled up a bit tighter, his thoughts getting the better of him, like his ego had earlier.

Suga had urged all the boys to take a shower before bed, and made sure everyone had water, and an extra blanket if they needed it. His ‘motherly’ instincts had kicked in and he was so wound up from the fight, feeling miserable when Daichi finally pulled him to bed, feeling like he should be doing something else. They did some breathing exercises together to calm him down.

Most of the first years were just mindlessly playing games on their phone or game system. Others just laid there, going over the events of the evening. Everyone was distracted when Tsukki and Tadashi finally came back in and crawled in their bags. Tonight, Tsukki slept against the wall, needing the solidness to help ground him as worked through this cloudy head space he was in right now.

Noya was the last to come back to the room, which wasn’t unusual. He pretended everything was fine, curling himself around Asahi to fall asleep. He slept in his binder that night, Asahi said nothing.

Bokuto was thinking about what they were going to do about the fight. He knew they had to tell their coaches, but he had to be careful how they put it, to ensure that the retreat wouldn’t get cut. He was still wide awake after everyone else had been asleep for some time now. He checked his phone, wincing at the bright light, finally his eyes adjusted enough to see the time. 1:58 AM. He sighed and rubbed his eyes, wanting to sleep.

He ended up back outside, sleeping pants, and a hoodie, sitting on the stairs of the gym, smoking. He couldn’t think of anything better to do. He went through four before he finally felt his eyelids growing heavy. When he came back in he fell asleep and Akashi moved over, letting him drape his arms around him. He, half asleep took a deep breath and made a happy noise.

“You smoked again.” He mumbled, quietly, and only half his mouth moving, the rest was pressed against Bokuto’s chest.

Bokuto just hummed and then held him closer, letting Akashi wrap his arm around him as well, intertwining their legs, and finally he fell asleep. Everyone had expected a lot from today, but no one had been prepared for how emotionally draining the day would become. It was more than they had expected, but it was necessary. The next day was sure to be a heavy one also, and this had just been in preparation for tomorrow. Everyone slept well that night, resting up. They would need it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhhh okay guys, so real quick, this chapter took me a lot less time to finish once I had started then the other big chapters, but yeah. Soooooooo the last fight wasn’t planned, at all, I didn’t have any fights planned, but it legit just happened, they all have a mind of their own, and I’m also preparing myself for the next day. Thank you so much to everyone who has left comments, and kudos it means so much to me, it honestly helps me continue to write. Especially with how much I’m working, its so easy for me to forget to write, or put it off because I’m tired, but it makes me so happy when I’ve written so it’s super helpful. I’ll put any links that I used in the bottom of this of course, and disclaimer, there are very few pages for genderfluid, so anyone that wants to fight about how I did it can bite me. I am genderfluid myself and I wrote this exactly the same as I am, except fit for Tadashi instead of me. So I will not be paying any attention to people who have a problem with me not portraying him right. Everyone be safe, remember to never sleep in your binders, sleep is always a good alternative to hurting yourself, some days are easier than others, violence is never the answer, and I am always here if you are questioning anything, need help, or need someone to tell you why you should stick around. I love all of you, and you are always welcome to message me on tumblr, and or follow me. I’m just a simple kid from Brooklyn. Actually, I’m not at all, but I post a lot of Captain America shit, so… @iwantyourbloodonmylips and like I said, please comment, kudos, and bookmark this shit show, we still have 4 days left, and it will be good, I promise. Thanks guys, stay safe!!!  
> http://www.marieclaire.com/culture/g3065/transgender-facts-figures/  
> https://www.bustle.com/p/8-statistics-that-prove-why-transgender-day-of-visibility-is-so-crucial-48079  
> https://www.glaad.org/transgender/transfaq  
> http://www.transequality.org/know-your-rights


	17. In the Eye of the Hurricane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first part and presentation for the fourth day of the retreat, some problems at home, and some other issues coming into play are finally showing up, can everyone stay together long enough to get past the rough patch?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys, this is the trigger warning for this particular chapter, there will be one now, and thinking about it, I probably should have put one in the last chapter too, but I want to say that while this chapter isn’t graphic at all, but there is blood mentioned in a particular way. Just be careful guys. You all have access to the suicide hotlines, and the Trevor project hotline. Stay safe, and let’s get started!

Lev was one of the first awake, unable to get a good night’s sleep for very long. Shortly after he got up and went to the showers, he walked around the campus a bit, he went into the cafeteria, and it was empty, which wasn’t surprising considering it was so early, but there were some noises from the kitchen. Not a lot, because all of the girls were rather quiet, but he noticed the common sound of pans, and fire, chopping. He went over and opened the door a bit, sticking his head in.

“Excuse me, good morning ma’am’s.” He said making himself known, the girls all turning to him and nodding their head in good morning. Yachi went over and bowed at him a bit.

“Good morning Haiba-san! Breakfast isn’t ready for everyone yet, but if you are hungry I think I have enough made for you.” She said smiling at him, brushing her hands off on her apron.

“No, thank you, I was hoping I could help. I usually help my mother cook, and I’ve been dying to help cook sense I got here.” He said smiling, looking over her, which for him, is basically just looking forwards, given the height difference between the two.

“Oh, I’m sure that would be okay, would you mind needing the biscuit dough for us?” She asked excited to not have to put all the energy into the activity herself.

“I’d be happy to.” He said and went to wash his hands, and get started, smiling at the other manager, thankful that they let him help.

It was about now that Yaku had woken up, and on his way to the showers stopped to wake Lev up, and when he found an empty bag he began to worry. He wasn’t sure what exactly had happened to Lev, but he had been worried about him, especially for today, and to find him missing already he was immediately awake.

“Hinata, have you seen Lev?” He asked the orange boy who was bouncing down the hall, followed by Kageyama.

“No, not yet!” He yelled, happy as could be just to be awake, seemingly unaffected by the night before when he had quite an emotional rollercoaster of a day.

Iwazumi walked out, his fingers already on his temple’s, as they pulsed. Waking up with a headache was his absolute favorite way to start the day.

“I’m sure he’s okay Morisuke. Don’t stress out.” He said and walked past him carrying a pill bottle, off to find a water fountain surely.

As much as he appreciated his friend, his words didn’t help much, and he forgot about a shower, as he pulled his shoes on and pulled on a hoodie, over his sleeping pants and plain shirt. He walked outside and looked around trying to find him. By the time he was headed to the café everyone else was also, so he hoped he’d see the boy chomping down on their first meal for the day, and would be able to talk to him then.

Sugawara and Daichi walked in a little later, obviously having been going over their presentation for the day, they talked, seemingly unaware of other people, working together like one machine, they didn’t notice the tall first year handing them their plates.

Everyone was nervous about how things would come together this morning. Sarukui walked into the cafeteria with Washio, and they both talked quietly about the show they usually watched, that they had missed last night. Neither mentioned why they missed it. They got their food quietly and sat down at one end of a table by themselves.

Moniwa was next to walk in, with Kamasaki, and Sasaya, they were all accepting the sort of calm silence between the group. Kama was still half asleep, Sasaya was still just on his phone, like he was checking the morning paper. Moniwa was preparing himself for the day.

“Lev! There you are!” Yaku yelled and went over, cutting in line, but no one really cared because he didn’t seem to be getting food.

“Oh, hi senpai. Eggs?” He asked offering him a plate that Konegawa took and looked at the two of them, his resting bitch face on full blast this morning, as it was in most mornings. The third year rolled his eyes and looked back to his kouhai.

“No, I don’t want eggs, you had me scared that something had happened. Just…leave a note or something when you leave the room that early next time, or text me at least.” He said rubbing the back of his neck, ignoring the looks he was getting from the other girls, and Kurro who had showed up with a video game focused Kenma.

“I’m sorry Morisuke senpai.” He said looking down like he was ashamed.

“It’s fine.” He said not even mentioning the fact that his kouhai had used his first name. He walked through the rest of the line, collecting his plate as he went. Instead of going to eat with his friends he sat at the table in the kitchen behind the door, where Lev would be able to eat with him in a moment.

The rest of the teams came in after a while all eating and talking, being generally calm, no one really joking, or laughing loudly. It was a peaceful morning, everyone getting ready for the presentations today.

Bokuto walked in with the coaches as they came in, he was speaking with them, and Daichi stood up, the room quieting.

“Tsukishima, Sarukui, Daichi, come with me.” Coach Ukai said speaking loudly. Bokuto flinching as the man yelled next to him. The four students and the coach of the two respective teams walked out of the room and Suga just sighed. It was moments like this he was saddened that he wasn’t captain. Vice-captain did a lot, but it meant that Daichi was alone in times like this. He just shook his head and set his note cards aside, doing what he did best.

“Noya-san! Good morning, have you eaten today?” Suga asked going up to the table of some of his teammates.

Noya grumbled and took a biscuit from Asahi’s plate, who just nodded to his friend and let him move on.

“Onaga, Komi, Kinoshita, are you all okay?” Suga asked walking over to their table. He made the rounds and even stopped to talk to Shimizu and Michimiya. The girls were surprised to have a second person come up to them.

“Suga-san, what happened? Why are the boys all quiet?” Michimiya asked, having been worried when Daichi was called out.

“There was a fight last night between Tsukishima and Sarukui, so them and the captains all got called out to go discuss things.” He said to the girls who had gathered seeing as most of the boys were finished eating for the time being anyway.

“Oh no, what happened? Are they okay?” Kaori asked perking up, wanting to make sure her teammates were okay, and simultaneously smack Saru upside the head for being stupid enough to get in a fight at all.

“Yes, everyone is okay, Tsukki has a few scraped up knuckles and some bruises, and Sarukui has a split lip I believe.” He said and they talked a bit more as the boys all cleared their trays and filed out of the large room to disperse until the meeting. No one was really sure when that would happen, or if it would happen at all today, so they were waiting in limbo. Some of them were using their time more wisely than others.

“Oikawa-senpai what are you doing?” Hinata asked and Obara laughed as he held his face.

“He’s finally been upducted!” Obara yelled which caused a few other people in the large sleeping room to look up from their own activities.

Oikawa just rolled his eyes and made sure his hair was still pinned back.

“We don’t know what’s going on retreat wise, so I’m doing my face mask now instead of later tonight. Don’t complain to me when you’re old and wrinkly.” He said proudly, and touched the edges of his rose water facemask that was covering the majority of his face.

“Please senpai, I won’t have to worry about being old or anything until I’m like…21!” Hinata yelled and smiled running off to go find Yamaguchi. He left behind Oikawa and Kai who winced and held their hearts as their soul left. Seeing as Kai was about to be 19 and later so would Oikawa they both considered it an insult to their age.

“Yama-yama!” Hinata yelled through the courtyard, looking for his friend, instead he found a small group of the boys all sitting and laughing.

“Guys have you seen Yamaguchi?” Hinata ran up and asked, bouncing on Kageyama’s head, who in turn, yelled and smacked his hands away, and moved making him fall face first onto the floor over Kageyama. There were some crude sounds coming from some of boys, and some more laughs before someone mumbled something about him walking down to the corner store for some things.

“I think Yamaguchi-san went to the store down the street. Said he needed a few things.” One of the older boys said and Hinata was surprised. He didn’t remember Tadashi saying he needed anything, Hinata was sure he would have shared if he needed something. He just shrugged and sat next to Kageyama.

Yahaba laid on his blankets and rolled over onto his side, looking at his friend who was on his phone on his own blankets.

“My stomach hurts.” He said expecting sympathy.

“Probably because you’ve been eating like nonstop sense we got here.” Kyotani said without even looking over at his now growling friend. Honestly, and they called him a dog…

“That’s not true! I’ve been eating just as much as you have asshole!” Yahaba said, rolling onto his back again and pouted. He really hadn’t been eating any more than his friend, maybe saving more food, but he hadn’t been eating it.

“Huh…I guess that’s true, but I don’t know, you don’t usually eat as much as me I guess.” He said thinking back over the last few months, he hadn’t really seen his friend eating much of anything. He had been rather thin the last few times they were changing, but he seemed fine now. Maybe he just hadn’t been eating enough. That was it.

Kyotani looked over to his friend, who held onto his stomach as he played a free game on his phone. They never texted anymore, and he never saw his friend calling anyone on it. He was about to ask him about it when there was a commotion across the room.

“Just leave it alone Kenji!” Moniwa yelled pushing his good friend. He fell back onto his own bed and looked shocked as he and everyone else in the room watched the Captain leave the room. Everyone just whispered, wondering what had happened and Kyotani was the only one there manly enough to go over. Shigeru just sighed getting up to go follow his wild friend to the scene.

“What’s going on Futakuchi-kun?” The second year asked. They both looked around at the ace putting away a bandage, and trying to wipe off the blood that had stained his fingertips. That was the thing about blood, once it was there for long enough, wiping it away didn’t do much.

“Uh, nothing, don’t worry about it.” He said being very secretive, which wasn’t like him at all. He tried to shoo the other boys away as he got up and excused himself as he followed where Moni-senpai had ran.

“Moni-san please talk to me!” He said into the boys’ bathroom. He didn’t see him, but he heard quiet mumbling, and after he dropped to the floor he saw the shoes that were definitely his senpai’s. He got up off the floor and grimaced, only for Moni, no one else, would he ever subject himself to that kind of disgust for.

“Moni…what’s going on, we’re supposed to be friends.” He said going over and standing in front of his stall, which was locked, that much was obvious without even needing to try.

“No, I’m supposed to be your senpai! So, listen to me, and drop this topic and go away!” He yelled again, his voice not fully there. He never was very good at yelling in a mean way.

“No, that isn’t my senpai. My senpai would talk to me, he would let me help him…please Kaname…talk to me.” Futa begged his friend. It was silent for a long time after that. It felt like those times when you look at the clock in school, look back half an hour later only to fine that it’s only been four minutes. Futakuchi was reminded of a time in school years ago when someone said something rather mean to a girl in his class in primary school.

_“Yamikawaii-san! Yamikawaii! Why don’t you just actually buy one of those pink guns you always draw huh? You can be the real yamikawaii!”_

*He shuddered thinking back to the girl who always wore long sleeves. He was ashamed to say he didn’t know what ever happened to her. She switched schools the next year, and there was talk of a girl who had killed herself a few towns over, but no one ever cared to see if there was a connection.

Finally, the door opened and Moniwa stood there, his arms crossed in front of him. His shirt had small red dots that spotted the sleeves. It had never seemed to cross Futa’s mind that someone who wore short sleeves every day could still do such a thing on his arms and chest. He tried quickly, to think of a time he had ever seen his senpai without a shirt. Before he could think of a time Moni was already moving to move past him.

“Wait, please…can I at least see them?”

“Why would you want to do that?” Kaname asked, not yelling, just waiting with general curiosity to hear his answer.

“Well I want to see how bad they are, and if any of them need to be cleaned, sense I doubt that you watch for infection. And I want to see how many there are.” He said and stepped forward slowly, like approaching a cat outside his house. Soft steps, reach his hand out slowly, wait, when there is no receding, then he can move forward. He finally touched his friend’s sleeve, and moved it up, resting it on his shoulder.

Just on his upper arm alone were too many to count. Mostly old ones, scar tissue that looked rough to the touch, and warn out. Seems to be the place he had started, a few of the cuts were red, and irritated from being newer. He did the same to the other shoulder, and this one was littered with just as many, but much newer. There were no thick, aged scars yet, ones that were old for sure, but it was obvious that he hadn’t started using this arm until later, it was his dominant hand’s shoulder.

He didn’t want to see his chest, but he knew they should. Moving back to a stall, just in case something happened, Moni pulled his shirt off and Futakuchi just stared.

“Why?” He asked, that was his main goal, to find out why. He wanted to know what was hurting his friend, his Moni so bad that he had to do this to himself.

Pulling his shirt back on to cover even more cuts than both of his arms combined. He sighed and shrugged.

“I always wear shorts to practice, even shorter ones around the house. But I’m always in a shirt, so I made do with what covered space I had.” He said explaining as if it was obvious. They started walking, not wanting to be in the bathroom any longer. They left and walked to the soccer field for the school. There wasn’t anyone playing, so they sat on the benches and talked.

After a very long discussion about parents, and stress, and websites, pictures, collections, and weaknesses they both had a much better understanding of each other. It wasn’t for a while before they could hear the lunch bell being rung and they stood up and Kenji hugged his friend. He had been keeping his peace through the whole conversation, not wanting to smother him, but he couldn’t help it any longer.

With arms around his neck, the third year didn’t have much of a choice, but to wrap his arms around the boy’s waist and hug him back, letting his head fall into the make shift crook of his arm.

They boys walked back to lunch, and thought about what all had happened. They arrived as others were, and walking in were surprised to see the coaches already eating, and the captains, and assailants had been returned to the general public. Instead of inquiring about what had happened the boys found themselves with the same group, at the same table as breakfast, except this time eating their fish and miso.

Hinata ran up to Tadashi who was back from the store apparently. He was sitting next to Tsukishima. He looked the same as he always did, so he assumed that was a good thing, that nothing too drastic had happened.

“Yama!” Hinata yelled as he wrapped his arms around the boy’s neck and hugged him from the awkward angle behind him to the side.

He pulled back quickly though, fortunately for Tadashi. Tsukki was already rolling his eyes as he continued to eat. The smaller boy just laughed and turned to his bouncy friend.

“Why do you smell like Coach?” Hinata asked narrowing his eyes, but before Tadashi could give an excuse Hinata had already solved the case.

“Oh, you went to his store! That’s why, duh, obviously, sorry, I didn’t mean to call you a name, or say you smelled bad really, just, ya know, like Coach. Anyway! Did you get anything fun from the store?” He asked sitting down next to the other first year now that Tobio was on his way over to the table with their trays.

“Dumbass, you carry your own tray!” He hissed and sat down next to the tall blond and eyed him. They were by no means friends, but they were both first years at Karasuno, that cared an awful lot for their senpai, and boyfriends. The only difference was that Tsukki had the balls to stand up for them, and Kageyama was smart enough not to start a fight.

As the other two first years chatted about the snacks gotten at the store, the taller of the two ate silently before Kage noticed the third look, this time from Akaashi.

“Why does your boyfriend smell like smoke?” He asked quietly, not even looking up from his food.

Tsukki pushed his glasses up and answered without missing a beat.

“Why does your boyfriend talk so much? King.” They both just ignored the questions and jabs, and continued to eat. It wasn’t five minutes later that Hinata’s camera went off, and both boys looked up, to see Yamaguchi’s camera going off then as well.

“Aw, our boys getting along!” Hinata cheered and Kei just rolled his eyes and got up to take his tray back to the kitchen, Yama not far behind. Wanting to be with his boyfriend and best friend. They passed Suga and Daichi who were talking quietly at a table, and he wanted to stop and try to listen in, but Tsukki was at the door, looking behind him waiting. It was something he did when he could no longer hear Yama’s footsteps behind him.

“No, we’re just going to continue with the retreat, and the boys will be watched more closely. No one will be allowed to get up anymore during the meetings, for any reason, but it will be okay. Nothing too bad. It was mostly just yelling from everyone over various things.” Daichi said eating his fish happily. He had been starving, seeing as he missed breakfast, to work on the presentation, that he would now be giving hours late. Oh well.

“And Tsukishima will still present today as well?” Suga asked as he watched his captain, much more interested in seeing him than eating. It had become a bad habit.

“Yeah, as far as I know, he said he was fine.” He had said and fed Suga some bites off of his plate. A much worse habit that had formed.

“I had never seen Bokuto so serious before, except for last night, I mean.” Daichi said and continued his story. He told his partner how the other captain had been the most serious of the two of them, and was very adamant that he wasn’t tolerating any of the nonsense that had been displayed the night before. As they were talking, the same captain that had explained that another outburst, or display like the previous and he would request his player step down and quit the team, cried out his usual, what could only be called a mating call.

“Hey, hey, hey Akaashi!” He jumped up and ran to his friend when he saw him. The boy who was usually calm and emotionless looking smiled softly and let his friend tackle him to the ground. The sight was so common that it didn’t distract most people from their lunch, so it didn’t occur to Bokuto to get up before he started speaking.

“Oh, Akaashi, you would have been so proud of me, I was all serious, and like “BAM” and I like laid down the law, like in those old western movies you hate!” He said his hands on the floor on either side of his friend’s head. The younger boy just laughed and nodded along.

“Yes, I’m sure you were a real gunslinger in there. Let’s get up now.” He said and moved his hands to tap on Bokuto’s arms. They both got up together and went to finish eating at the table Akaashi had been at before spotting his friend.

“See, why don’t you listen to me like that!” Yahaba whined at Kyotani. The boy just rolled his eyes and threatened to throw his milk at him if he kept it up. Narita piped in then, saying he would gladly step in as Kyo’s love puppy if it meant he got his milk.

Without thinking about it the milk was tossed at his face, and a victory call was made as Narita drank it up happily. No one at the table commented at the pet name that had been used. When it was nearing the end of lunch Kinoshita motioned for his announcer buddy, and they headed off, to get the stage set up for presentations.

“Alright, everyone please head to the gym after lunch for your pre-scheduled presentations. Please inform those who have already left as well.” Daichi said as they left the cafeteria. He and Suga left to go get ready for the disaster that was going to be their presentation.

“Hey guys! So, we had a rough bit this morning, but we are going to just jump back into our presentations. Today is the last day of them, so please, let’s get through these, learn, and grow as much as we can, and then we can have some fun okay?” Kinoshita said as he spoke to the group of boys that were sitting in their usual groups all watching the stage.

Narita then bowed and they moved to let their captain, and vice-captain come up on stage to start their presentations, handing them the mics.

“Hi everyone, so you all know us, well, today we are going to talk about being safe in a young relationship. More specifically STD’s, drug safety, and pregnancy.” Suga said as they opened their presentation boards. All of the boys groaned and Daichi laughed, claiming victory over their bet. Suga had hoped that all of the boys would be to awkward to say anything, and would just let them present. Daichi, knew the boys enough to know they wouldn’t like it. And would very much want to make that known.

Some of the boys had tried to pull out their phone, but the others were watching them enough to tell them to put it away and pay attention, even though none of them wanted to be here.

“Alright, well, let’s get started, then shall we? First thing you need to know is about having safe sex. This includes condoms, unwanted pregnancies, and possible STD’s. There are about 20 million new STD’s every year, and the youth makes up half of those cases, in people 15-24.” He said and looking down at his notecards.

“Now, STD stands for Sexually Transmitted Disease, there are lots of kinds, some are very common, and some are very serious. One of the most common is Chlamydia. It is easily cured with an antibiotic, and about 50% of men and 70% of women don’t show signs of the disease for years.

It usually shows up as unusual discharge from the organ, and pain when peeing or having sex. Usually where there is Chlamydia there is Gonorrhoea. They are usually caught together, and one in three females who have it also have the other. Gonorrhoea is a disease that you can only catch from actual sexually activity. Men can sometimes get symptoms that result in problems with their urinary tract, and can eventually, if left untreated spread through the body, and affect the muscles and joints.” Suga said. 

“Now, Genital Herpes: over 80% of people have this STD and don’t know it because they show no symptoms, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t pass it to someone else, and they can experience symptoms of sore and infected or painful blisters. They might have disturbed, and itchy bumps. This is why we always get tested, and always use proper protection.” Daichi finished his next bit, and they looked out at the crowd, who were just thankful that this talk didn’t have any pictures.

“Syphilis is one of the oldest STDs we know about, and it is easily cured if it is caught in time, but if someone doesn’t know they have it, or doesn’t treat it, the results can be severe. Ulcers, infection of the brain, eyes, and ears, and potentially, even death. But the most important, the biggest, and the most worrisome STD is HIV.” Suga looked sad. He hated this particular talk.

“HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, which means that it affects your immune system and is transmitted by sex or needles for those who use drugs. You can’t actually die from HIV, but if left untreated HIV transforms into AIDS, which is known as Acquired Immunodeficiency Symptom, which so far is incurable. This is why it is so very important that you are safe and regularly get tested.

It is said that one in every two sexually active people will get an STD by the time they are 25. It is also said that men that have sex with other men are 17 times more likely to get anal cancer than those who don’t have sex with other men.” He took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders.

Daichi just ran his hands through his hair.

“None of this is meant to scare you, it is meant to protect you. Our boards have the locations of all of the places that do testing for STDs in our city, and each of our guest school zone cities.” He said proudly.

“Oh, and Gay and Transgender people are 200 times more likely to smoke cigarettes and 25% are more likely to abuse alcohol, and three and a half times more likely to smoke marijuana than other men.” Daichi spoke as Suga then took his mic, as if to lighten the mood.

“And I know there are people in this room that do all three.” He said looking around accusingly with a smile.

Tsukki and his boyfriend, Bokuto, Akaashi, and a good portion of the Date Tech boys turned a bright shade of red. Everyone else laughed and started laughing and poking, and pointing out other people, calling people out, trying to cause trouble like they try to.

“Just, be careful boys.” Suga said and he looked around, not wanting to actually call anyone out publicly.

“Anyway, that is the end of our presentation. We are going to skip the questions, to save them all for later, to save time, because our last presentation, is much bigger, and very important.” Suga finished up talking and they gave the mics back to their DJs and they took over, telling everyone they were going to take a small break for some pocky that was being provided by the girls in the back. Who had been in the room, in the back for most of the presentation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys, there is already a lot in this chapter, and there is much much more to come before this chapter is over so I’ve decided to divide it into two. I’m so sorry for how long it took, really I am, I’ve been sick the last full week, finally feeling up to it, and I felt bad, someone recently pointed out how somber the fic had gotten, but it is almost over, the sad/serious stuff anyway. Today is the last day of the presentations itself, and the last day of like fact checking and stuff, so that also will make it easier for me, but don’t worry we’ll still have three days left of the retreat, but just so no one worries, I’m actually going to go back and start writing part number two right now, and there will be some fun times before we get into the last presentation. That being said, everyone needs to be safe please!!!! If anyone needs to talk about anything that went down in this chapter, or ask any questions, you can always ask me here or on my tumblr @iwantyourbloodonmylips alright guys, that’s it! Till next time!!! 
> 
> http://www.ashasexualhealth.org/stdsstis/myths-and-facts/  
> https://www.dred.com/uk/list-of-stds.html  
> http://www.ashasexualhealth.org/stdsstis/statistics/  
> https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/lgbt/reports/2012/03/09/11228/why-the-gay-and-transgender-population-experiences-higher-rates-of-substance-use/
> 
> *Yamikawaii is known almost as an anti-kawaii group, that is pink, or cutesy colors with a messed up “mental illness” vibe to it. I would not suggest looking into this if English “emo” pictures are triggering for you. It’s as close to their version of emo as I could find.


	18. Troubled Times

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Second Half of the fourth day, there is lots of emotions, but less fighting this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry it's been so long guys omg i really am, but here you go, uh, trigger warning for talking about some serious stuff and a mild cliff hanger lol! let's get started!

The girls passed out the pocky and talked with their friends, as a fun break from being in the kitchen. Today, they had all decided that they wanted the girls to be involved in the presentations as well, because the information was for them as well.

As if it was somehow planned, or staged, as soon as pocky was passed out, everyone started yelling about the pocky game! Kurro started it, by yelling about how cute it would be for Kenma to play it with him. Kenma, wanting to avoid a conflict, and having no preference one way or another, he leaned in and took the bite of the pocky, eating it until they kissed.

They truly were the cutest couple here. And Suga was going to have none of it. Getting his own pocky, he smiled and asked Daichi who took it, and gratefully ate the snack stick from his boyfriends’ mouth.

Oh, the games were on!

All around the boys were trying to get each other to do the pocky game, some more than others. Hinata being as coincidentally innocent as usually just offered Kageyama a pocky stick from his package, but wanting to be bolder, he decided to do something else. And it had nothing to do with the fact that he was being watched by a large group.

Kageyama leaned in and took the pocky that was sticking out of Hinata’s mouth, while he kissed him softly before pulling away to finish chewing. When he pulled back Hinata was as red as his hair, and everyone started cheering as he pulled back. He blushed himself as Tadashi started trying to get Tsukki to do it with him. Finally, Yamaguchi had finished the pocky stick that was in his mouth and Tsukki just leaned over and kissed him, and then took a stick out of his package.

“I’d rather just kiss you.” He said shrugging as Yama blushed, and got a few slaps on the back, and everyone was joking around. Except for Oikawa.

“Iwaizumi, you have to! Everyone else is doing it! Even just friends are doing it! It’s not fair!!!!!” He said calling after his friend who had already finished his snack, and now was just actively trying to avoid his friend.

“I don’t have to just because everyone else does!” He called and rolled his eyes going over to Kai and Akaashi and started talking with his friends. That didn’t stop the pretty boy from following him over and poking his cheek with the pocky in his mouth, and being generally annoying. He wanted his attention, because he hadn’t had any recently, and that’s what all of this was about really. Iwaizumi knew the real reason behind his friend’s tantrum, but he didn’t want to reward this kind of behavior. Akaashi and he had talked about it many times.

Finally, it was time for the boys to go back and sit down, some of them still had their snack bags, and Oikawa was one of them. He sat down and put a stick in his mouth, ready to eat it when Iwaizumi took pity on him, and without many people noticing, stepped in front of him then, took the pocky out of his mouth, kissed him, and then turned to go to his seat, eating the stolen stick.

It was rare that he got Oikawa to blush, but when he did it was amazing, because everyone around him could tell, and everyone pointed it out.

“Look, Oikawa is as bright as Hinata’s hair!” Ennoshita said to his group, who was next to theirs, and everyone turned as if on cue, to all look at him at once, that caused a scene, and soon everyone was looking at this pretty boy, blush even more now, knowing there was no explaining his way out of this one.

“Alright, as much fun as it too laugh at Oikawa, I think we should get on with our last presentations, we are so close to being finished guys, but this one is going to be the hardest, for everyone probably.” Kinoshita said looking to his friend who nodded and continued.

“Remember if you need to get up and go to the bathroom, or leave, please tell your group leader first, and we are taking all questions in the boxes, or at the end of the day, and please don’t forget that we’re not allowed to get up anymore, to joke around, but I really don’t think that’ll be a problem this time around, just be aware of emotions okay guys?” Narita said and they put the microphone back in its stand and left the stage.

Everyone looked around, almost confused, they knew this presentation was going to be about abuse, but no one was up on stage, and it was silent for a moment before Tsukishima walked out on stage. He looked like he usually did, a common look of disdain for all of mankind, but he walked as if he was a new born baby giraffe. Together it was a very unsettling image.

No one commented, thankfully. Tsukki finally got to the mic stand, took it out of the way, fumbling with the cord for a bit. It was the most uncomfortable thing to watch, Tsukki of all people struggling. He was not someone who struggled with anything. He was tall, cool, and laid back, he didn’t get flustered. Except, he did apparently.

“I’m going to talk to you about abuse.” He said looking out into the crowd. There was no point in putting it nicely. Everyone already knew what the presentation was going to be about, the fact that he even just said that was only to prove to himself that he could say it out loud. He was looking almost only at Kuroo, he couldn’t bring himself to look at Tadashi, who he hadn’t told anything to yet.

“Uh, well there are many different kinds of abuse, physical, sexual, verbal, and emotional. They are all different, usually where there is one there is another, but they are all valid forms of abuse.” He said reading off of the paper he had his information on.

“Abuse can come from anyone, a boss, a coach, a parent, even a partner. Rape is a common form of both physical and sexual abuse, and…” He stumbled his words before he fixed his glasses and continued.

“And it can happen to anyone.” He said and looked out before turning back to his board.

“I have some information on what abuse can look like, some statistics about abuse in different forms from different people in your life, and what to do in case you see abuse, or think someone is in danger.” He said, forgetting to speak into the mic, before repeating what he had just said.

“So, most people know what verbal abuse is, it’s fairly easy to understand, its someone calling you ugly, or stupid, worst names, but it can also be someone making subtle comments that reference these things.” He blinked a few times to himself, willing himself to stay connected for this presentation. Afterwards, whatever happened, happened.

“Emotional abuse is the one that most people probably forget about, it’s uh, when it comes to kid’s it’s sometimes called neglect, but it has a lot to do with like manipulation, and making that person feel bad, or feel small, especially if it means that they turn to you for comfort. That act, makes them feel more in charge, and perpetuates the idea that they are better and you should stay with them.

“This can be someone making a comment about how their partner looks bad in something they personally don’t like, or a style of clothing, or color, so that their partner won’t wear it. It can be someone getting overly angry about their partner talking to someone, and claiming that they just get really jealous, or that they don’t want their significant other to see or talk to that person ever again. If you hear a friend talking about ‘Oh, my boyfriend won’t like that outfit,’ or ‘my girlfriend said I can’t talk to my friend anymore,’ then that is emotional manipulation, and abuse. This doesn’t mean you can’t get jealous, or not like an outfit someone is wearing, it means you are not allowed to use someone else’s insecurities, or feelings and use them to your advantage.”

So far so good. Tsukki was still talking, still breathing, still not passed out. The room was completely silent, so that sucked, but he reassured himself that that was because of the new rule.

He cleared his throat.

“Physical abuse, is the easiest to see, report, and help end. It is also pretty straight forward, because it means any physical harm, but what people don’t understand is that this isn’t just hitting, or kicking. It can be their partner slamming them into a wall, or a parent poking them so hard that they bruise. It can be purposefully spilling their hot drink on them, or not allowing them hot water showers. But a case could be made that that would also be emotional abuse…” He started to trail off, catching himself he got back on track.

“Anyway, most people think that physical abuse is the only one they are allowed to report, this is not true, abuse is abuse, and should always be reported, and taken seriously. It is not just ‘some silly words,’ or ‘a few dick moves.’ It is abuse, and it needs to be taken seriously and handled right away.

“Now, sometimes, leaving the situation immediately is out of the question, because of safety, or threat of homelessness, isolation, or financial reasons.” He let himself be quiet for a moment, but continued against his better judgement.

“You may also be talking to someone, who is obviously going through one or more forms of abuse, and they don’t acknowledge the abuse, or refuse to see it, they might even, uh, they might even start defending their abuser. This is very common as well, and you have to help them, because it means that they are either too scared by their abuser, who might not even be there, or that they have been brainwashed by their abuser to the point that they won’t leave no matter what, which is the end goal for all abusers, is that their target will stay quiet, and stay with them.” He said and rubbed his face.

He knew flashbacks would be a possibility, talking about it for the first time in a long time, but he was determined to get through this presentation.

“Sometimes, when a person is able to get out, they have to leave everything behind, and end up homeless. It’s thought that forty percent of all homeless youth are lgbt.” He stopped what he was about to say because one of the boys fell out of his chair. He looked up as there was an apology from Suga, the group leader, so he continued.

“About forty-six percent of homeless or runaway’s reported being physically abused at home, thirty-eight percent said they were emotionally abused, and 17 percent were sexually abused, or forced into sexual acts.”

“Those who run away are at higher risk for depression, low self-esteem, poor health and nutrition. A combination of those can lead to eating idsorders, and LGBT youth are at a higher risk what is called “survival sex.” They will exchange sex for shelter, food, anything, and are more likely to be abused in these shelters, and on the streets than straight homeless youth.”

“There are many cases where it is hard to continue schooling or education because of being homeless. They might not have money for the uniform, or the school, or they don’t have the documents they need, someone to sign them, or a parent or adult to go with them to enroll. This makes it hard for homeless youth to finish school and get jobs.” Tsukki had to remind himself that he was lucky, even though he didn’t always feel like it. He had never been homeless. But given the odds, he thought, someone in the group of boys he had here today probably had been at some point.

“So how can you help, well, reporting abuse, talking to your friend’s, about what you think is going on, or what’s going on in your own home. Watching your friends for signs of abuse at home, in their relationship, with their food, when was the last time they had a shower, or eaten, or slept? It’s all about watching out for one another and building a safety net or people you can count on to help you through whatever is going on. For you or someone else.” He looked to Kuroo who smiled at him, and then they both glanced to Tadashi who looked more shocked than anything.

“And the most important thing you can do is talk to people. Share your story so that someone else who might be going through the same thing, or worse, knows that you’re there for them.” He said and finished by looking at his feet.

“Uh…” He paused looking to Kinoshita to come up and take the mic from him. Once he did they reminded everyone of the boxes that were open for comments and questions, and dismissed them until their meeting that night.

He hadn’t even turned the microphone of before Yahaba was up and out of his seat, at the door, leaving the gym. Kyotani followed him as everyone else slowly got up and started talking again.

Tsukki was down the stairs of the stage when Yamaguchi came up to him and stood in his way. They stood for a moment, just staring at one another, before Kei mumbled an apology and was immediately grabbed in a hug attack. Letting his head forehead rest on top of Tadashi’s head he took a deep breath.

“Where did you go earlier to smoke?” He asked quietly when the shorter boy laughed and leaned up to kiss him before they were bombarded with their friends.

“Aye! You did great!” Kuroo said and smacked Tsuki on the back, earning him a scowl as Kenma came up beside him and started talking to Tadashi about his game.

“Tsukishima that presentation was so smart!” Hinata yelled as he came over to the group, Tobio was quiet, but it wasn’t out of pity.

“Thanks, shimp.” He said as usual as their group walked outside.

“That was some heavy stuff.” Yachi said and Suzumeda agreed, and they started talking about it when Ennoshita came over and tapped Shimizu on the shoulder.

“Hello, did you need something Chikara?” She asked and Yachi turned her head, smiling, the conversation on hold for the moment so she could smile at her new friend. They had grown a lot closer sense the retreat started and Suzumeda had to cough a bit to get her to continue.

“Oh, uh, yeah, I was just wondering if there was any help you guys needed with dinner, seeing as you had to be here for the presentation today.” He smiled awkwardly, rubbing his neck.

“Yes, that would be nice, I’m sure Hitoka would enjoy your company.” She said blandly. She was very aware of what was going on between her kouhai and her player, but she could say that she honestly trusted Enno very much. But, even he needed to be reminded what was going on.

“However, we should talk.” She said and walked away from the group, leaving the girls to talk to one another, she led them outside, and into the kitchen, knowing the boy would follow. He opened the doors for her, barely able to keep up, but knew that it was important he did.

“Chikara, I know you like Yachi. But she is younger than you, and isn’t like the rest of the team. She’s incredibly smart, and has a very bright future, both with management, and university. I don’t want her to fall behind because of a boy, and I absolutely will not tolerate her being hurt by one.” Kiyoko made sure to look in his eyes directly as they talked, she wasn’t extremely tall, or very strong, so her stare had become her best line of defense.

He nodded unsure of what to say, all of the regular ‘I would never’ comments seemed trivial, and unimpressive.

“Don’t hurt her, if things end, make sure they end well. Talk to her. Treat her right. We still have some time this year, and I’ll be watching to make sure everything is being taken care of, even when I’m not here anymore.” She said and then got up and put her apron on, handing one to the boy. It was scary how good her timing was, not three seconds later the rest of the girls walked in.

“I don’t know! He’s just-oh! Ennoshita-san!” Yachi said and stopped in her tracks, turning bright red, and the other girls laughed as they got their aprons on as well. Together they started preparing the food, side by side.

Dinner was delicious, and none of the boys said anything when Chikara handed them their plates. Yachi was in the back, laughing at something one of the girls had said, and everyone knew that out of everyone here, their “relationship,” should there be one, would be the most innocent and pure of them all.

There were lots of things the boys didn’t comment on, and it was probably the quietest dinner they had had so far. No one said anything the small red marks peeking out under Hinata’s shirt. Or the smell of two different kinds of smoke that came with a particular group of boys, and no one said anything about Iwazumi and Oikawa sitting at different tables. Everyone ate, and laughed quietly at small jokes. There was no yelling, or throwing. There were no invitations for fights, it was calm. A little unnerving, but nice nonetheless.

When the boys made their way back into the room there was a particular feeling in the air, everyone uneasy, hoping that this time the meeting wouldn’t end in a fight.

Narita had gone to collect the questions, and came back with a lot. It wasn’t surprising, they had planned for this meeting to be the longest yet, seeing as there was so much ground to cover. They decided right off the bat to have Suga, Daichi, and Tsukki come up on stage to answer the questions instead of having to wait for them to stand up and come up to the front. All five boys sat on the edge of the stage, with the MC’s on either side.

“Alright guys, everyone get comfortable, we have a few questions to get through, and we aren’t going to have a repeat of last night. Everyone that wants to talk is going to have to raise their hand, and one of us will call on you.” Kinoshita said and nodded as everyone settled in for the first question.

“What’s the difference between emotional and verbal abuse?” Narita read aloud. Kinoshita passed his microphone down through the boys until it got to Tsukishima.

“Well, they can usually intertwine, and more often than not go together, but the best explanation is more of an example?” He readjusted himself and then continued.

“If someone was to say, ‘You’re a whore and you’re a waste of space.’ That would be verbal abuse, but if someone said, ‘I don’t know why you would wear that, it makes me feel like I’ve got a whore on my arm,’ then it puts the idea in their head that not only do they look bad, but that it’s causing discomfort in their partner, and that they should change to please their partner. That’s emotional abuse.”

He said, not apologizing for using the rough language, this was a serious topic, and no one was laughing at his word choices. The comment sat in his head a lot, one he had heard frequently at one point in his life.

Everyone on stage nodded and moved onto the next question.

“If all I’ve ever done is kissed someone, do I need to be tested?” Suga took the microphone and thought for a moment.

“If you’ve never had sex then you won’t have gotten an STD, but you should talk to your doctor, or family, and ask them if anything runs in the family, or if you could have gotten anything through genetics that you should be aware of, and it’s always good to know where your local testing sight is.” He said smiling out into the crowd, wondering who asked it.

“Can I get an STD from sitting on a toilet?” Narita spoke, and there were a few laughs from the audience, and as much as Daichi wanted to make this a topic that could be easily discussed, but he knew whoever asked, was, most likely, genuinely worried.

“No. It’s a common myth, but no you can only get an STD from, guess what, having sex.” He spoke, and held the mic to pass it to whoever needed it next.

“How do I know if I’ve been abusive towards someone?” Narita shook his head, this was a hard question, both to answer, and to know that someone in this room, one of his friends was worried that they could have been abusive to someone. No one laughed.

Tsukki took the microphone but was thinking a bit too much, getting caught in his head of how to answer so Suga took it back and asked if he could start off the answer.

“The fact that you are asking that is probably a good thing. People who are genuinely abusive won’t care that they are what they are. What is going on right now is probably a guilty conscious for something you think was too mean, or hurtful towards your friend or partner. But if you are still worried then there are some signs you can look out for right Tsukishima?” He said and finally the kid was back and able to answer.

“Yes, uh, if your friend or partner has suddenly stopped talking to you as much, if they flinch when you move to hug them or wave hello, are they quieter around you? These are some things you can look out for, and if they are happening then maybe ask yourself what caused it? What happened, sometimes it’s obvious, maybe you were mad and walked off and hit their shoulder with yours, maybe you said something mean. It’s also a good possibility that something you did, if these things are in fact happening, that what you did was a final straw, or something that reminded them of something that happens at home, or happened in the past and they are experiencing PTSD from the abuse. Either way, talk to your friend or partner and see where you both stand.” He said looking to his senpai’s who were all nodding along.

“Hey Daichi, how do I report verbal abuse?” Narita said, trying to change it up a bit.

“Well Narita, you report verbal abuse the same way you would physical abuse, and that is to tell someone. Tell a teacher, a coach, a parent, or a friend. From there you will make a plan to find the best solution to the abuse, whether or not that means having some friends take some time apart, or involving police.” He said nodding, thinking back to the seminar the third years had all had earlier at the beginning of the year.

“How old do you have to be to be tested for STD’s?”

“If you have had any form of sexual contact with someone, where they have…entered you in any way, or the other way around, it is always worth it to get tested. No matter how old you are.” Suga spoke and just held onto the microphone, playing with the cord.

“How do I stop abuse when I see it? I don’t want to get hurt or involved either. Does this make me a bad person?”

“Well it depends on what kind of abuse you are witnessing. If you see someone calling their partner or someone names, then stick up for them, and get them away from the situation. However, if you are seeing someone being hit, or beat, or god forbid sexually attacked, then call for help. There is always the off chance that the violence may turn on you, and depending on you, you can get involved anyway, or you can call for an ambulance. Your safety is still important.” Daichi answered and wanted to make it clear that safety was key, no matter who’s safety it was.

“And you aren’t a bad person for asking that, or not wanting to get hurt. It is perfectly normal; our brains are wired for a fight or flight response. The flight doesn’t always mean just leaving the area, but it means you are more worried about protection, which is a natural instinct anyway, than fighting. It just means you are wired differently.”

“Alright, last two questions guys. I think my friend is in an abusive relationship, what should I do?” Narita looked to his friends on stage, and then out in this room. Did they mean one of the couples in this room? There were more, they were sure, than were public. Who was it?

“Uh, the best thing to do right now is bring your concerns to a coach or captain. We have plenty of those here at our disposal, and I’m sure all of the captains, not just from your team would be more than willing to work with you, find your captain, and sort everything out. If your friend is in immediate danger I would say find them tonight, now that you are aware, and make it a priority to get help to your friend. If you know that they are safe right now, possibly from being at a retreat for a week, then talk to your coach or captain before we leave this week, and make a plan to work something out once we go back.” Tsukki said, his face scrunched, who was so worried about their friend, was it the other half of the person worried they had done something?

“Alright, last one,” honestly Narita was hoping for a light-hearted question, something to ease the tension.

“I think my senpai is abusing themselves…what do I do?” He said and then thought about it for a moment. He didn’t want to look up to his own senpai’s. He knew he hadn’t asked the question, but just knowing that someone here did was bothersome enough.

“Uh, Daichi, I think this is more for you.” Tsukki said, pulling on his own shirt sleeves, uncomfortable in knowing what it was referencing. He didn’t want the microphone anymore, giving it to his captain.

“What this person means, for those of you that are confused, is that someone is worried about their senpai hurting themselves. This is something we haven’t really talked about much, but I’m glad it was brought up.” He said taking on a very dad role.

“Sometimes, people hurt themselves, with a knife, or even their own fists. They do it for a lot of different reasons, but mostly it means that something is bothering them and the only way they can seem to feel better is hurting themselves. Usually they are depressed or have anxiety, which causes them to do this. If you see someone with scars, don’t point it out, because it can be a very personal, uncomfortable topic. But, seeing someone hurting themselves, or knowing that they do it currently is different, and you should start by talking to your friend, or again, bringing it to the attention of someone older than you. Suga and I both would help anyone who needed it, or had concerns about one of their friends or senpais.” He said and thought for a moment. It was a topic he had some familiarity with, remembering a boy he liked before Suga.

“It is very important to me that if you are worried about a friend, especially one that is here with us currently, that you bring it to the attention of a coach, your captain or me, all of us here are very close, and I know that no one wants one of us hurting.” He said and the entire room took a breath, seemingly at the same time. There was so much to take in.

“Okay guys, those were some very good questions, and informative answers. I think the main thing we’ve all learned today is to watch out for one another, and talk to Daichi.” Kinoshita said trying to make a joke that wasn’t crude in any way. Most of them laughed a bit.

“Well tomorrow will be much better than today hopefully, we’re going to be doing a really fun activity, all planned by Yachi, and I think it’ll be very exciting for everyone. Sleep good tonight, and be nice.” He said and they all got up and stretched. A few went over and started putting chairs up to get the volleyball net out. It was an idea that most of them were on board with. What they needed right now was to let off some tension, their favorite way.

“Oikawa! Do you want to play?” Bokuto called out and tossed him a volleyball. He seemed to snap out of whatever daze he had been in and nodded, smiling as he hit it back to him.

“Yahaba we need to talk.” Kyotani said following his friend as he made another dash for the door.

“No, we don’t.” Yahaba said without even turning around. He was walking back to his sleeping bag, but Moniwa was already there talking with Futakuchi, and they looked at him with pleading eyes. One wanted them to come in and disrupt the conversation, the other didn’t, that much was obvious, but Shigeru wasn’t sure which one wanted which more.

Turning back around he ran face first into Kyotani who wrapped his arms around him.

“You’re stick and bones, talk to me! Why aren’t you eating?” He asked his voice low because they were still right outside the door.

Yahaba was taken back, that’s what this was about?

“Oh.” He let out a small confused noise.

“I am, just…not as much, I don’t have an eating disorder if that’s what you’re worried about.” He said pushing himself away from the taller boy. Something about being that close to him was doing something to his stomach, and he didn’t hate it, which bothered him more.

“But you would tell me if you did have one?” He asked sarcastically.

“Moni! I didn’t say anything, I swear!” A yell came from behind the door before it was swung open, and Moniwa moved around them both and walked outside. The boys both knew they didn’t want to fight like that, so they both dropped it and decided instead to just watch a video on their computer, and have a quiet night in. Yahaba was happy he was able to keep his secret a secret still, wondering for just a moment, why he bothered to hide it anymore. Shrugging mentally, he pushed the thought aside for another day when he’d have to worry about it.

Tsukki was still pulling Tadashi behind him when they got to the roof of one of the buildings.

“You can smoke up here from now on, no one comes up here, I know from experience.” He said nervous while Tadashi pulled one out and light it anyway, offering it to his boyfriend who took it happily.

“So why did you really bring me up here?” He asked hoping he was right.

“I wanted to explain what happened.”

“No, you don’t have to Kei, I know that’s a really personal thing.” Tadashi said even though he really wanted to know.

“I know you want to know, and it’s not healthy to keep it a secret, especially from you, anymore at least. I want to tell you.” He said and handed a now almost half gone cigarette back to Yamaguchi.

“When I was younger my dad was very abusive, to my mom mostly, and as I got older, me. We were able to leave eventually, and I was lucky that we didn’t have to be homeless, but it’s caused a lot of problems. But I swear, the fight was a one-time thing, I lost control, but I will…” He paused and took his glasses off, rubbing his eyes before he just broke down. Tadashi was quick to put the cigarette out and go over and hug his boyfriend, holding his head, he asked him what was wrong, but he only got sobs in return. It had been a long-time sense Kei had cried like this.

“I will never hit you, I swear it!” He said finally, with a shaky breath.

“Is that what these tears are about baby? I know that! I knew that before you told me. Your past doesn’t mean I’m nervous to be with you, I like you for you now, and I know you would never hurt me okay?” Yamaguchi reminded him with soft words and kisses to his face, they stayed up there a bit longer, until Tsukki had himself under a bit more control.

As they were walking back to the sleeping room they passed Daichi standing next to Koganegawa. They were silent while they passed, and Daichi nodded to Tsukki, knowing where they had been, and doing what. He was a lot more in touch than people gave him credit for.

Once they were gone Kogan continued.

“I think Moniwa is hurting himself.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys, I have so many apologies to make I know! I’m so so so sorry! I’ve become obsessed with a new fandom and it’s kind of taken over my life, but I had the inspiration, so here is the last bit of this day. Hopefully with all the serious days over it’ll be easier to continue writing. That being said I’m going to be hella busy until Christmas, it was a miracle that I got this time to finish it. I should have been at work, anyway. (I just scared myself lol) uh, comment please, it makes me so much more motivated to write more, it really does! That’s why I’ve been so involved with this new fandom because I’m actually getting feedback for my contributions to the fandom. If you want to know what it is then follow me on tumblr @iwantyourbloodonmylips and for all your Haikyuu pins follow me on pintrest @abusemesoftly thanks guys, stay safe!!! And Happy Holidays!


	19. Sweet Treats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the boys are put in charge of making and delivering cupcakes some have more trouble with this than others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, its me, I'm alive and posting again!!!! Yes, well here we go guys, let's get started!

Yachi woke up at the crack of dawn, excited and nervous as hell for the day. She went to shower and get dressed before her alarm was ever set to to go off. She went to the kitchen and started preparing the last of the cupcakes. She had been baking all last night after dinner until bedtime. Now she only had a few batches left. Kiyoko was next to come in, on the phone, she didn’t seem to think that yachi would be there.

“No, I have a couple days left here then I’ll be able to hop on a train and come see…” she trailed off seeing the young girl. 

“I’ll talk to you later.” She hung up the phone and asked Yachi what she was doing awake so early. 

“I couldn’t sleep, and I still have a few batches to bake off for today so I figured I’d try to get it out of the way before you guys have to make breakfast.” She gave her explanation as she finished emptying a scoop of cupcake batter into its pan. Smiling she looked to her friends phone as she sent a text, presumably to the person with whom she was just speaking with.

Kiyoko just smiled and put her phone away as she started washing her hands. The girls worked together with some small talk. As the last of the cupcakes were being put in the oven the older girl spoke up. 

“I want to talk to you about ennoshita.”

“What about enno-san?”

“Well i know that you two like each other, and I think it’s a wonderful idea, I think he would treat you very well, but I want you to know for sure if this is something you can handle right now before you go with him.” She said, always straight to the point. 

“He likes me?” It was all she had heard from the entire statement her manager had said. 

“He likes me…” She said it again and that’s when the other girls walked in, talking. 

“I’m so hungry, why do we have to eat with the boys, we already cook the food, I don’t understand why we can’t eat first.” Yukie spoke up and they all stopped when they saw the other girls. 

“This is where you guys are!” Kaori spoke up and smiled a good morning. The girls all worked to clean up from the baking that had just gone down, and started cooking breakfast for everyone. They had been working for about half an hour when suddenly Kuroo burst through the door, making all the girls scream.  

“Sorry, sorry, but where is the mayonaise? I need the mayonnaise!” He exclaimed and then marched over to the fridge and opened it, finding the industrial sized container. Grabbing a spoon he got a giant scoop and put it on his hand. The girls watched in horror as he made a small mountain of the condiment on his hand and then left without another word, or putting it away. 

“What…”

“Was that?”

“It doesn't matter, just ignore him and let’s continue, I’m sure we’ll know soon enough.” kiyoko said going over to put the jar away and wash the spoon he had used, curious herself.

“I got it!” Kuroo yelled triumphantly as he went back out to Oikawa and Bokuto who all cheered with him. They had decided the night before that they would start this lighthearted day with a good ol’ fashioned harmless trick. Sneaking in they sighed with relief seeing that suga had already left for the shower, leaving daichi to sleep alone until the last minute, like usual. With Bokuto recording Kuroo went over and yelled loudly. 

“Mayoslap!” He then looked at he groggy and confused daichi and slapped him across the face with the condiment. It was almost immediate the death glare they received as Daichi woke up more, now covered. 

“Run.” was all daichi said as he got up quickly to run after the boys. 

Squealing all the boys ran away for dear life, Oikawa jumping over a sleeping Yahaba as he went. The boy seemed to sense this and woke up, as Oikawa was half over him and screamed. Waking up his friend next to him and the rest of the boys in the room he muttered an apology and rolled over, turning to Kyotani and sighed. 

“Today is supposed to be a fun day right?” He asked and Kyotani nodded. 

“Yeah, we’re making cupcakes and taking them somewhere. Seems like it would be more fun if we got to eat the cupcakes, but oh well.” he said shrugging and sat up stretching. 

“I wonder where we’re taking them.” He said as he got up, dodging the glares he was getting from some of the third years who had been sleeping. 

“Probably some hospital or something.” Kyotani said and followed his friend to the bathroom. As they entered Hinata was skipping out of the room, a bright smile on his face as he went over and bounced on Kageyama where he slept. 

“Oof!” He made the noise and woke up only half way as he reached his arms around the boy. 

“Hinata. Sleep, please, let me sleep…” He mumbled as he unconsciously pulled the boy close, tucking him into his chest. Hinata was so thrown off by this that he didn't know what to do, so for a moment he let himself relax into the touch, and nuzzled himself against Tobio’s chest and hummed. It was then that Tanaka decided to walk by and he snickered, making the redhead's eyes snap open. 

There was the sound of a camera going off and then he spoke up. 

“Uh, Hinata, whatcha doing?” 

“It’s nothing, and nothing that it looks like. It just happened!” He yelled waking the other boy up, who promptly pushed him away. 

“What the fuck Hinata?” He blushed bright red and got up, running to the bathroom without taking his clothes.

Right then before anyone could stay anything else about it Daichi came through the door, with some white stuff in his hair and on his face and everyone fell silent while he sighed. 

“Don't ask…”he said grabbing his clothes and walking to the restroom. 

The third year showered and was dressed before some of the other kids were even awake. 

Futakuchi woke with a sour taste in his mouth from the night before, he hated fighting with his friend. Looking over he noticed that Moniwa was already awake and not to be seen anywhere in the room. What he didn’t know was that Daichi had already caught ahold of Moni and asked to speak with him privately. 

“Coach?” Moniwa asked when he was lead into a room with both of their teams coaches. 

“I’m disappointed in you Kaname, disappointed that you didn’t come to me.” A sad looking Oiwake said and shook his head, looking over to Ukai. 

“I, I don’t know what this is about…?” Moniwa spoke softly, knowing fully well what this was about. 

“A player of yours came to me because they were worried that you have been harming yourself by the form of cutting.” Daichi spoke up now, looking to his friend, feeling bad that he was having to be here for this, but he was brought in and he would rather it be uncomfortable for a little bit than have it go unnoticed any longer. 

Across the campus there was a small group of first years going to the cafeteria to get breakfast when Watari came running up to them. 

“At lunch, watergun fight, we strike at 12:15.” He then ran off again to tell other people. 

“That was weird.” Lev spoke up and shrugged it off as he and Yuki kept talking about which movie was better. 

Breakfast came by so fast that the girls hadn’t really stopped moving when the meal was long over, the boys all tossing to each other in the gym when Kiyoko came in and cleared her throat. 

Silence. 

“I need help setting up the tables and chairs.” She said and immediately she had a small army of boys at her beck and call. Boys from all the teams were setting up tables in an orderly way, with chairs on either side of the line. The girls then started walking in carrying bags and bags of various decorations. Some boys, including Ennoshita was helping them carry in these bags and set them all over the tables. 

Finally it was time to transport all the cupcakes. Yachi carried in the first batch and while the boys carried in the rest of the trays she started distributing them. 12 to a table, and the rest would be stored for later. She then nervously cleared her throat and waited for what she assumed would take a moment, but only took a second and a half for complete silence. 

“I would like to thank everyone for sticking with the retreat this long, and I think this is a fun way for us all to get together and relax for a day.” She spoke as if she was reading off of a card. 

“On each table is 12 cupcakes, two for each person to decorate. Each table has plenty of frosting and sprinkles of all colors, and various decorations. I ask that you are respectful with all your decorating and make these kid friendly designs, as we are taking these to children. 

“When you are done with your decorating please put the cupcakes in the containers I have provided up here on my table, so we can get them ready for transport. Then after lunch we will go and deliver them. If you have any questions please ask me and happy decorating.” She nearly fell over with how exhausted she was, but the day was hardly over, and already boys were lining up to ask her questions. 

“What decoration should I do?”

“Why can’t we eat them?”

“Can’t we just eat one!?”

“Where are we taking them? I’m a child too.”  

Enno finally shooed the boys off and turned to Yachi. 

“You are doing great. Actually you’re doing so good that I think they would all be okay if I steal you for a minute if that was okay…?” He said smiling nervously. 

She was stunned for a moment, and then wiped her hands off on her apron and looked around at the gymnasium full of boys decorating cupcakes, talking, laughing, and decided that she could spare a  moment. 

“Sure.” She let herself be led away to the outside area. 

“What’s going on Enno-san?”

“I would like to ask you to accept my confession and go out with me.” He said looking down at his feet, and then remembering what Kiyoko said and looked up at her quickly. 

She was shocked. The first year never thought she would be confessed to, and not by a second year that she liked! She stood there gawking at him for about two seconds before she shook her head physically and then smiled big. 

“Yes!” She wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her head in his, and pulled him close, his arms going around her waist as he held her. 

“I wasn’t sure if you really wanted to, so it is a big relief.” He said kissing the side of her head and then she got down, blushing wildly. 

“Of course I wanted to say yes, you’ll have to come home and meet my mother of course, and my friends already all know you, but I’ll reintroduce you now.” She said rambling, and he couldn’t help but smile at her, happy to comply with whatever requests she had. 

“Would you like to get back in there?” He asked when he saw her look back to the door. 

“Yes please, come with me?” She asked reaching her hand out for him to hold. They happily walked back into the room holding hands, a handful of people taking note and smiling at the couple they all saw coming. 

“Kenma look at mine! I made one for you!” 

“Why, I won’t get to eat it?” 

“Watch the frosting dumbass!”

“Pass the blue sprinkles please!”

The boys were all being surprisingly well behaved. After a while Moiniwa and Daichi walked in the room quietly. Most of the boys didn’t even notice. Those that did saw that Moni had red puffy eyes, and was pulling at his sleeves. Daichi also had wierd marks on his face, and both boys looked like they had been crying, which would have been silly becuase they were both so stoic all the time.  

They both went back to their respective friend groups and started participating. No one bothered to ask them where they had been. 

After about an hour of decorating almost everyone was finished, or wrapping up when Yachi said that she was going to start packing all of them up and the boys that were finished were welcome to help clean up and then leave when they wanted. 

Oikawa cleaned up his area, surprised by how many sprinkles there were considering he didn’t use any in his decorating. When he was finished he tugged on Akashi’s shirt sleeve. 

“Hey, can we talk?” He asked quietly to make sure that no one else heard. 

Iwaizumi looked over at him and sensed  the seriousness in his question and nodded, allowing him to be petulant and pull on him until they were out of sight from everyone else. 

“What’s going on Toru?” Iwaizumi asked finally when his friend started pacing back and fourth. 

“Am I abusive?” 

“What? What are you talking about?” Iwaizumi was confused in every sense of the word. Abusive? 

“No of course not.” There was a bit of doubt in Oikawa’s mind but he took what was said seriously and nodded at his friend. 

“I just want to be sure that I’m not being abusive to you when I’m mean to you. It didn't even occur to me that I might be and I’m sorry.” Oikawa was being unusually sincere and Hajime was a bit thrown off by it. 

“Listen Toru, you are never abusive, it’s not in your nature, and I wouldn’t take it if you were. Okay? You are fine, and I can handle anything you throw at me.” He said in his natural demeanor. He then did something that wasn’t like him at all, but it felt right for the moment. He hugged him. 

“Now let’s get back to everyone else.” Iwaizumi said when Oikawa just stood there dumbfounded. 

Once the gymnasium, was picked up Yachi was quick to gain the attention of the boys who were getting antsy. 

“Alright we’re going to be loading up onto the busses here in just a bit and we’re going to take these cupcakes to the Children’s Homeless Center on Slaton Street and pass them out. Those children are usually there for LGBT reasons and they are the largest children’s homeless shelter in the city.” 

Yahaba’s face drained of color. He frequented the CHC quite a bit. Not so much recently because he found he got a better meal from the LGBT shelter 25 blocks away. 

“Yahaba are you okay?” Kyotani asked noticing his friends face, worried he was about to faint or something, and he was. 

Speechless, Yahaba’s body reacted faster than his mind did because he started nodding his head, almost violently. Finally he caught up. 

“Yes, yeah, I'm fine, yes, why wouldn't I be?” He suddenly questioned his friend, hoping to turn the tables on him. 

“Well yeah, but you looked really, almost scared!” Kindachi came over and nodded along calling over Onegawa. 

“Oh yeah!” 

“Oh go away or I'll sick the rabid puppy here on you.” he threatened and made t-rex hands as Kyotani pretended to be a rabid animal. As soon as the first years walked off, perhaps faster than usual, Kyo turned to Yahaba and grabbed him in a headlock. 

“Why won't you talk to me!?” He asked while he messed with his hair. 

“Huh pretty boy!?” 

Yahaba groaned and fought to win and get out of the headlock. 

“I’m talking to you right now dumbass!” 

The boys continued like that for about five minutes until Oikawa came over with Kuroo and Kenma and wacked them both on the head. The boys milled around in groups outside while they waited for the busses. 

“I'm nervous Kageyama.” Hinata said quietly. 

“Why?” He asked looking over to Hinata, surprised by his choice of emotion. 

“Because what if there are people there I know!” 

“Like who stupid? Your parents? Your teachers?” 

“I don't know...but it's so scary in those places.” Hinata said with a shudder. 

“I’m sure we won't see anyone we know there.” Tobio said and they walked up to the bus. 

Half an hour later all the boys were loaded up in their respective busses and being driven to the CHC. The bus rides were the loudest 45 minutes of the coaches lives. 

“We’re here!” Yachi yelled and Hinata cheered. 

As soon as the boys were pulling in comments began immediately among all the busses. 

“Oh my god.” 

“People live here?” 

“It’s so sad.” 

When all busses were emptied the boys all lined up in two lines per team, and different kids were handed cupcakes to carry. 

Inside the building the children were all being lined up in the rec room where tables sat up. The children continued to play and read in the room while they waited for the volunteer crew to come in. When the doors opened a couple kids stopped and stared at the tall men in matching uniforms. Some of the older kids stood and got ready to greet them. 

The teams walking in flawlessly except for one team, drew all the attention. There was one boy watching the teams come in that tilted his head looking at a particular blond hair boy when the director of the center came out and clapped her hands drawing everyone's attention. 

“The Karasuno High boys volleyball team has decided to donate fresh cupcakes to the center, so everyone please enjoy and come up to get a collection of assorted decorated cupcakes. Please only take one container per family.” she said and turned to all the boys who bowed and collectively said thank you. It was then up to all the boys to individually offer the cupcakes to those who wanted them. Small groups of two or three. 

Yahaba was so stiff  he could barely walk, he was clenching his jaw, shoulders tense, and his hands in balls. You could say he was a mess but Kyotani, carrying the cupcakes, was still peeved at him for not telling him why he was acting so weird. They were still fairly far down the line so he had to stand there, not looking at anyone, praying to any god that would listen that he didn't get recognized. 

When it was their turn they handed the cupcakes to a woman and her seven year old. They bowed, smiled and offered them up. As soon as the treats were not in their possession anymore Yahaba ran out of the center to the outside where he sat against a wall. He did it. He had made it, he was safe. 

“Yahaba is that you hunny?” A woman spoke suddenly and he snapped his head up, to see Ms. Wang and her 8 year old son Nagisa. As soon as he saw her she was on the ground hugging him. So was Nagisa. He froze, not even hugging her back. 

He looked up to see Kyotani and they locked eyes and Kyotani’s said everything. 

“Hunny we were so worried about you, you haven't been back at all recently, and there were rumors that the police had caught another runaway about your age and Nagisa was so worried and missed you, are you alright?” The woman spoke. 

“Are you here with your school Yahaba-san?” the boy spoke looking at the now small crowd of school boys that surrounded them all staring at the car accident that was Yahaba’s life. 

He couldn't speak. He got up and frantically looked around trying to find somewhere to run. His friends were all staring at him, Ms. Wang was trying to talk to him, and all he could hear was his heartbeat thumping away in his ears. 

Finally he found a small opening and he darted, running as fast as he could, the tears that had brimmed, fell as he ran. He didn't hear his friends all call out to him as he ran pass the busses and around the building into the city. 

A few if his friends followed him, some longer than others. They got lost in the crazy city life and then had then had to call for help to get back. He was gone. 

“Coach! Yahaba ran off!” Watari said coming up to the group of adults and coaches. 

“What?” A few of them said at the same time. They all ran over to where Kyotani and Oikawa sat, the once strong boy now a panicked, hyperventilating mess. 

Yahaba was no different, he ran until his lungs felt like fire and he finally stopped and stared behind him, then up at his surroundings, and located the street names. He walked to a front of a building and slumped onto the floor one more time. He just held his knees and cried harder than he had in a while. 

“And he just started running?” Komi asked for the group of boys that stood listening to the tale of their friend running away being told by Fukunaga. 

“Yeah! He looked like he had just been shot at, scared, crying, and just sort of lost.” He explained, having seen the entire thing.

Kyotani had explained what happened to the coaches, and again to the police. They had been called when a quick drive around proved to be useless and they couldn't find him. They even tried to call his parents but when they had gotten contact they refused to talk and hug up. No one had any idea what was going on but the boys were all transported back to the campus while a few boys stayed with the coach and police at the scene. They were all told to go to the gym and one of the coaches came in and explained what had happened because some of the boys didn't know the truth, what with how fast rumors spread within these kinds of groups. 

After the boys were told they were to practice drills while dinner was being prepared. The coaches thought it would be best for them to keep occupied instead of talking all about it and gossiping. 

The boys were all quietly thankful for the distraction and went to work running drills. They ran drills for an hour before the girls all had dinner ready. Going into the cafeteria, they all quietly sat and talked about what was going on with their friend. It was about fifteen minutes past then that Yahaba and Oikawa came in and they got food while going back out of the cafeteria. 

Yahaba carried his tray with Oikawa and they walked back to the room where he was being questioned with the teachers. He looked down at his stir fry and poked it with a fork. He wasn't hungry. Actually he was, but not eating was the one thing he had control over. It was a constant thing he did when he had a bad night. But it wasn't a problem. He had it under control. 

“Are you listening? You need to talk to us Yahaba.” His coach said and sighed rubbing his face. 

“Will you talk to Kyotani?” He asked trying to bargain with the seemingly small boy. 

“No!” He said quickly. It was a nightmare the thought of his friend coming in here right now. 

“Then talk to us.” He insisted and Yahaba sighed pushing his food away. There was no way he was eating tonight. 

“My parents kicked me out, that's all.” He shrugged and sat back in his chair, being petulant about it all. 

“When? Why didn't you tell someone in the school?” 

“Because I didn't want people to know!” He yelled and let out a lot of his anger. He was never one for the feeling, but the anger of his living situation had been building for quite a while. 

His coach put a hand in his shoulder and took a deep breath. 

“You may go now, we will discuss this with your counselor tomorrow morning.” The older man let him leave and Yahaba left his tray there just to show he wasn't eating. He went back to the main building, and hesitated. He wasn't ready to go in, not just yet, and he heard a twig snap across the courtyard so he followed the sound. 

“Yamaguchi?” He asked seeing a boy that looked like him leaning against a tree facing away. 

The boy did something quickly and then there was a small smile cloud and he knew exactly what his friend was doing. Before he even got a chance to turn around he was asking,

“Can I have one?” Tadashi blushed looking around. 

“Uh...yeah…” he said pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and handing him one. He handed him the lighter as well and they sat down, back to the school. 

“Do you wanna talk about what happened?” Yamaguchi asked looking to his friend. They were never extremely close the two, but after everything they had all gone through this week so far, they all considered each other family, or at least friends. 

“Not really, I'm just avoiding going in and seeing my dog…” he knew how much Kyotani hated the nickname but he couldn't bring himself to care. 

“Okay.” Tadashi says and started to get up to leave when Yahaba called out to him. 

“Sit with me?” He asked and The dark haired boy nodded and sat back down. They sat in silence until he was finished and then they both got up and walked inside. 

As they entered the gym Tsukki stood up and looked at them both before Tadashi said his goodbye and went over to his boyfriend. Tadashi comforted his boyfriend, telling him what had happened and he finally relaxed a bit. 

“He’s a runaway, don't hang out with him, who knows what he’ll do.” Tsukki said remembering the days when his mother and him slept in those shelters. 

Looking around the room Yahaba didn't see his friend and decided to go check the sleeping rooms. Sure enough, curled up in his sleeping bag was Kyotani. Shigeru wasn’t sure if he was sleeping or not so he went over, avoiding the looks he was getting from everyone else and crouched down beside his friend. 

“Hey puppy dog…” He said quietly and his friends’ eyes snapped open and he was up in a heartbeat and hugging him. That was unexpected for sure, but he accepted it over the screaming he had been preparing for. 

“Why?” Was all that was asked and then Yahaba sat on the ground next to his friend and told him. Told him how he had come out to his parents and they threw a fit about it and kicked him out, told him how he was lucky if he ate twice a day, how he had to count on other people to give him money to wash his school uniforms once a week. Everything. His stomach growled and it was that sound that made his friend start tearing up. 

“Look, I don’t want you staying in a place like that, I want you to come stay with me. My family loves you, thinks you’re the best thing that could have happened to me, and we have a spare room, or if you want you can stay in mine with me. I don’t care, I just want you out of there. With a shower whenever you want, and a washing machine at your disposal, and a bed that is all yours. I mean it, come stay with me.” He was sincere enough, but Yahaba couldn’t impose like that. 

“You haven’t even talked to your parents about this, and I can’t do that to them.” He said and before he could continue Kentaro had pulled out his phone and showed him the texts from his mother talking about how they would have to talk about it, but he was welcome to stay with them as long as he needed. 

“I...don’t they care?” He asked dumbfounded. 

“That you are gay? No, they know that I’m bisexual.”

“You are?” 

“You didn’t know that?” Kyotani laughed and pointed to his hair. 

“You think a straight boy puts this much effort into his hair?” They both laughed then, amused. 

The rest of the night went by rather quietly, a few boys came up to Yahaba and asked about what happened and he was more inclined to tell them than he thought he would be because he knew they really cared. It was easier to talk to his peers and friends than his coach. They didn’t have an ending meeting that night, but all the boys at some point after dinner did a couple of drills or at least tossed the ball back and forth. Tomorrow surely would have less drama, and they were all looking forward to it. To a day where they could all just enjoy each other, and the activity. Slowly one by one the boys all trailed in and went to bed, ending an eventful day for all of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god guys i did it. Lol i posted another chapter i know!!!! I love and thank everyone who comments and leaves kudos, it means so much to me i don’t know how to say it any other way. I just got a new keyboard so if this is a little rough capitalization wise i apologize, remember i don’t proofread shit for yall, I let everyone read my mistakes!!!! Again thank you to everyone who comments and remember you can always find me on tumblr @ iwantyourbloodonmylips or pintrest @ abusemesoftly . Hopefully with a new chapter posted it will give me the motivation i need to finish the story all the way, if you have any questions just let me know, if you have any suggestions let me know, if i misspelled something sucks to be you, because i’m not going back. Lol. anyway, thanks guys! Stay safe, love you, bye!!!!!!!


	20. Growth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to take picture's for a photographer who is going to make calendars for each team, and the retreat. Together the boys realize how far they've come and have grown as teammates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy SHit guys, another chapter, and the second from the last at that!!! I know right, so crazy, but I'm in a new state now, but I'll be without my only friend here for a while so between a new job and a new town I recon I'll have some more free time to keep writing the next chapter here soon, so keep an eye out! That being said, let's get started!

The sixth day started out rather dreary. It was raining outside, so it stayed rather dark all morning which meant all the boys slept in much later than usual. They all barely made it in time for breakfast. All of them were scurrying in right as it was being served, the girls laughing at some of them, their hair still in all sorts. The only boys that had been up for a while were Hinata and Kageyama, because today was their day to be in charge. Both boys were racing around trying to figure out what they were going to do because they had planned on all their pictures to be outside, and with the weather the way it was they couldn’t do that. Thankfully, by the time everyone was finished with breakfast they had figured it all out. 

“Good morning everyone!” Hinata yelled into the microphone, waving excitedly. 

“Either yell, or talk into the microphone dumbass, don’t do both.” Kageyama said taking the thing from him. 

“Hello everyone, so today we are going to be making calendars for each school to sell for funding for the teams. This means lots of pictures.” Tobio spoke officially. 

“We will have professional photographers coming soon to take our pictures, but before they get here we are going to have to go over with each group what the different pictures are going to be.” Hinata spoke loudly, not even needing the microphone. They way the two of them worked together you would think they would already be together. 

“We are going to have everyone go change into your uniforms, and then we will be splitting up by teams, and we will be by to talk about each specific pictures for that team.” 

Both boys were nervous, would they think their ideas were stupid, or love them, no one knew. 

“In addition to individual calendars, we are going to be making one for the entire retreat.” Kageyama continued. The boys were all listening intently, and genuinely interested. There were still some sore parts from last night but everyone was being nice to one another and acting like nothing happened the night before. 

After a few other general comments the boys all dispersed to go and change into their uniform, which was a challenge in itself. 

“Kenma where is my uniform?” Came a panicked Kuroo, followed by a bored Kenma who handed him said uniform. 

“Iwa-chan I don’t know where my uniform is either!” Oikawa whined, when Iwaizumi shot back, 

“Well dammit Oikawa I didn’t pack your suitcase!” 

Most of the boys laughed and Oikawa pouted as he pulled out his uniform from his bag anyway, just wanting the attention. Always about the attention. 

Both Hinata and his taller other half were already dressed and were running around telling everyone to hurry before they rushed back to the gymnasium to prepare it for pictures. They decided that the state would be the best background for some of the pictures because the drama kids had a plain white background scene already prepared behind the curtain. 

“Alright, Nekoma, you guys are up first, the photographer is here and wants to start with the on the court pictures.” Hinata was up bouncing around placing them certain spots, talking with the photographer. 

The boys did exceptionally well with the photographer. Between him and Hinata they had some great ideas for pictures. They got pictures of the boys in their uniform, jumping, waiting, and being goofy with one another. One of Kageyama’s ideas was to have everyone have their picture taken with a flower crown, so they lined up and picked their flowers. It was an adorable idea, the boys all loved it, which caused Kage some relief from the anxiety he had been feeling. 

It was then for the pictures that Hinata had silently been waiting for all day. He almost didn’t tell the photographer about it because he was too nervous, but when he did the man was ecstatic about taking them. 

“Alright, everyone is going to choose a level of undress, with the last one holding up just a volleyball in front of them.” He spoke quietly, very unlike himself. 

“Speak up Hinata!” Someone called from the back of the auditorium and he blushed before Kageyama stood up and said it again louder for everyone to hear, knowing Hinata was having a hard time admitting that he had come up with the idea. 

Wolf whistles filled the auditorium and soon everyone was running for a volleyball to be the one fully undressed. It was then that they said that they would be lined up by age, and only the students over 18 would be holding balls. Then there came the boo’s when the younger boys realize they wouldn’t qualify. 

Daichi was much more willing once it was between him, Suga, and Aishi as to who would be holding the ball. Oikawa was first to volunteer for his team, and Moniwa was none to pleased that he was up for the spot as well. 

“Hey hey hey!” Bokuto was basically already ripping off his clothes getting ready for the picture, but alas, Date Tech was first so the boys all lined up in height order and started with the shortests first years fully dressed, then some of the older boys missing their jackets, taller boys lost their shirts and shoes, and then the very end boy lost everything but his underwear, which was covered by a volleyball. 

Moniwa was extremely uncomfortable in this position, but no one mentioned his scar’s, that or no one even saw them. Knowing they were there though, reminded him of yesterday. 

~

“Who said something?” Moniwa spoke up wanting to know which of the two people that had known betrayed him. 

“I was sworn to secrecy, and I won’t out anyone just so you can go and yell at them. They did the right thing coming to me.” Daichi said in response. 

“Is it true Kaname?” His coach asked and he hung his head, not wanting to look anyone in the eyes. 

“Yes sir.” He said hearing the audible sigh that came with his answer. 

“We are required to notify your parents,” Moni’s head snapped up and looked to his coach with terror in his eyes, “But I have agreed to keep this between everyone in this room if you swear to me that you will not do it anymore. And talk to me every day about how it is going.” He said and Kaname relaxed quite a bit. 

Quit. 

He wasn’t sure he could quit, he had been doing it for years now. It helped him. 

“Fine.” 

“That means handing over any razors you have on you.” Daichi said knowing he wouldn’t leave something like that behind for a week. 

Closing his eyes deflated, he nodded and he and Daichi went back to his sleeping bag where he pulled out a small pill bottle. He handed it over to his friend who opened it and looked at the three razors in the container. 

“You are loved Moniwa, you don’t have to do this. You can talk to me anytime you need to. Okay?” Daichi patted his back as they walked back to their coaches to turn in the sharps. 

~

The pictures were a huge hit by everyone. Next was Aobajosai followed by Fukurodani, Nekoma, and finally Karasuno. The last picture they all did was with each team facing away, the light shining in between them from the front, and lined up in number order. 

Over all a great day. The boys all lined up and said thank you to the photographer who shook the hands of all the captains, and Hinata and Kageyama. 

Once he was gone it was time for lunch. All the boys piled into the cafeteria for some delicious dumplings, with rice and miso soup. It was the perfect lunch for a rainy day. Warm and filling. Most boys went back for seconds before dumping their trays. The girls were happy to serve them, having made extra knowing the weather would be bad. Sometimes it seemed they were the only ones to pay attention. 

After lunch the boys all meandered back into the gymnasium and decided to do some drills. If nothing else could be said about them, they were all dedicated to their sport. After about two hours of practicing they all decided to take a break. 

Walking over to get some water Hinata overheard Kurro and Koganegawa talking about something he wasn’t quite sure about. 

“Man I have so many kinks I could wipe you away with them.” Kurro laughed and looked at the small boy and made a scary face and Kogan just laughed at the redhead who scurried off to go talk to Kageyama and Kenma. 

“I think you should offer Kurro-san a massage.” Hinata said after going up to them, and it made the even shorter boy pause his game and look up, and then over to where his tall boyfriend was talking with a small group of people, making wild hand gestures. 

“Why?”

“Because he was talking about having all these kinks. That means he’s sore right?” He said and took a seat on the floor in front of his boyfriend. 

Kageyama just turned bright red and laughed, hiding his face as best as possible. 

“What? Bakayama tell me what!” Hinata whined and finally Kenma looked at them both and was waiting for them to quiet down before he resumed his game, talking quietly. 

“He meant sexual kinks.” Was all he said before he got up and walked over Tadashi to get help with a level. 

“A what?” 

“A sexual kink, it’s like, what someone likes in bed.” Tobio said and messed with hinata’s hair while he looked over to Kurro and some of the other boys from various teams. 

“You name it, I have it, and I guarantee I get whatever I want.” Kurro said with a smirk and the boys around him hooped and hollered. 

“What about you Sarukui-san?” Obara asked and Sarukui just smiled. 

“School girls of course!” 

“Oh that’s so tame!” Matsukawa said and they all laughed. 

“You need to be into something serious to be taken serious here Saru,” Matsukawa spoke, “Like rope.” He said and they all laughed again agreeing with him. 

“Or daddy kink…” Yaku said not even the slightest bit ashamed. 

“Damn, such a big kink for someone so small.” Kurro laughed and Tanaka just laughed and looked at them both. 

“Oh like you don’t have it too,” Tanaka pretended to be Kenma, “Look at me, I’m kenma, I’m short quiet. Oh daddy!” He fake moaned and they all laughed as Tanaka clung to Kurro. 

“Ahem.” Kenma cleared his throat and looked at all of thetaller players, most, younger than him or his age. They all stopped laughing immediately, and looked between the three boys. 

“Kenma, h-hey!” Tanaka stumbled and got away from Kuroo. Everyone knew that Kurro was a flirt, and  they didn’t really know how Kenma dealt with it. 

He didn’t say anything he just looked everyone in the eye, silently, and then pulled on Kuroo’s shirt until he was low enough that he could wrap his arms around his neck and kiss him deeply. Jealousy was not in Kenma’s nature, but something about other boys talking about their personal sex life out loud, was too much for him. They kissed in complete silence for one whole minute. Such a deep kiss for such a small usually quite timid person. Eventually all the boys turned different shades of the same dark color and dispersed, their conversation clearly over as far as Kenma was concerned. 

“Someone got a little jealous.” Kuroo said laughing a bit as they finally pulled apart. 

Pulling Kurro even close Kenma whispered in his ear. 

“I won’t ever call you daddy.” He turned and walked off as Kuroo stood there stuttering like the idiot he was. Fumbling the volleyball he was holding he chased after it as Kenma walked back over to Tadashi and Tsukki. 

“Damn.” Tsukishima said and pushed his glasses up on his face, a little jealousy of his own flaring up that neither him nor his boyfriend were that daring. 

Kozume proceeded as if nothing had happened and kept playing his game.

“I am not telling you my kinks Shoyo!” Kageyama  said angrily as he ran away from his boyfriend. 

“Come on! Everyone else talks about theirs!” He said and chased after him, dodging the volleyballs that were now being thrown at him from various boys, trying to hit him. 

“What are your kinks Iwa-chan?” Oikawa asked leaning in to his friend and smirked as he wiggled his eyebrows. 

“You.” He said as he got up and went to the opposite side of the gym leaving Oikawa completely dumbfounded. Following after his friend he was in a haze. Never had Iwa-chan ever been so forward, sure, Iwa liked him, everyone liked him, but he had never been so obvious about it. 

“Excuse me Iwa-chan, what?” He said when he caught up with him. Before either of them could say anymore Iwazumi grabbed his arm and pulled him outside, and to the side of the building. 

“Look, if you must know, yes, I like you, now can we drop it?” He said angrily looking to the side. He was blushing and Oikawa realized that this was one of those times that he had to be sincere. He wished he had his glasses, they always made him feel more connected with his real self. 

“Iwa-chan...I like you too, I don’t want to drop it. I want to hold hands like Tsukki-Kohai and Tadashi. Or be with you like Kenma and Kuroo-san. I want, shit I just want to be with you...like us.” He said and pleaded with his friend to make it so. 

Moving Toru against the wall Hajime kissed him deeply and rested his arms around him against the wall behind them. When he pulled back a bit he looked at Toru seriously. 

“This doesn’t mean anything changes with how we act. I don’t like public displays of affection.” He said and Oikawa pouted but nodded eventually kissing Iwa-chan again, wrapping his arms around his waist and pulling him close. 

“We’re not in the public eye right now.” He whispered and kissed him again. 

“Yes you are!” Bokuto yelled and a small group of boys laughed and just ran back inside the gym. God knows how long they had been standing there watching. Neither boy knew exactly, because they had been so engrossed in the conversation they had been having. Rolling his eyes Iwaizumi just sighed and stood back, letting Oikawa walk back into the gymnasium first. To a room full of clapping. 

This whole group of boys was nothing but accepting and it made Hajime squirm, while Toru just basked in the idea that they all knew they were together now. 

Now that they had all had a break, they decided to get back to practicing. Oikawa being unstoppable, considering he was practicing on cloud nine. 

After dinner the boys all got the chairs back out, and sat in their groups while Narita and Kinoshita got the microphone set up. 

“Alright, so the picture company is donating 20 copies of each calendar to us for free, and the rest can be ordered tomorrow at the tournament. All the proceeds go to each team, except for the retreat calendars, which all proceeds will go to the LGBT youth organization.” Narita said the boys all clapped for the idea. 

“This was all possible by everyone’s favorite duo, Hinata and Kageyama!” Kino said and again the gym erupted in clapps for the two. 

“We didn’t have any questions today, so we are going to do some group building activities tonight to end the night off. So the first we are going to sit in a circle, sit on the side of your chair, all facing the same way, and then lean back on each other’s knee’s then one by one we will take the chairs out from under you and the first person to make a fully functional circle with no chairs wins.” Kino spoke and then the two boys broke apart to explain it to everyone better. 

After everyone understood they started and chairs were being thrown left and right. In the end Daichi’s group won and they were rewarded with a round of applause, and the ability to pick tomorrow's line up. With that everyone was free to go after cleaning up and some people brought back out the net and kept practicing, while others decided to call it a night and leave to get ready for bed and sleep for tomorrow. 

Tomorrow was the big day and the final day of their retreat. Most of the boys were sad and didn’t want to say it. They would miss being here with just their friends. Surrounded by people who supported them with all they had. People that understood how much they all cared about volleyball. 

They had all grown on this retreat. So many people had gotten together, they had fought, laughed, cried, and become closer friends with everyone. It would make competing against each other even harder and all the more rewarding. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 6, photo up time! Lol shout out to the that 70’s show reference!!!!! Oh my gosh guys another chapter, and to those that are wondering yes, I’ll post all my notes at the end, trust me, I have a lot. I can’t belive we’re coming up on the end. It’s going to be such a relief when I’m finally finished with this fic, as much as i loved working on it I’m going to be so happy when it’s done!!!!!!! As always follow me on tumblr @ iwantyourbloodonmylips and pintrest @ abusemesoftly ask me anything, and please please, please, keep the comments coming, they really do make me able to write, and I’m so close to being finished!

**Author's Note:**

> Ahhhh guys, okay how was that? First chapter was kind of crazy because it’s everyone, the other chapters will be more separate, focused on certain people or things, every once in a while, will probably have these, in fact, now that I think about it, the next few might be like this, until we get to the actual retreat. But was there enough cliff hangers for you? What is going on with Noya and Tsukki? And did you catch the tipped hat’s to different relationships? Did ya? Stay tuned for sure! And comment and kudos if you liked it, and follow me on tumblr for questions, prompts, comments, or general fandomness. @iwantyourbloodonmylips Thanks guys! More to come!!!


End file.
